THE DRY PIECE
NRC, Francine van der Wiel
... ‘The Dry Piece’ recalled memories of ‘Herses (une lente introduction)’ in which Boris Charmatz presented five naked dancers on the stage in 1997 in such a way that eroticism never even came into the picture; he simply gave a pure and direct presentation of the body. Levi is doing something similar with four naked female dancers. Behind a sheer projection screen they move like four athletes, graces, odalisques of one mind – woman as we know her. Their nudity is inescapable, but since nudity is something we easily grow accustomed to, their sexuality is transformed into aestheticism.
The latter is underlined by the Busby Berkeley-style physical compositions, fanning out and shrinking in kaleidoscopic movements projected on the screen. Ironically, Levi thus presents the female body, which she intended to free from ‘the violent male gaze’ and the way it dominates the beauty industry, as an object as well, albeit an object with a neutrality that equals that of a building block.
Francine van der Wiel
The latter is underlined by the Busby Berkeley-style physical compositions, fanning out and shrinking in kaleidoscopic movements projected on the screen. Ironically, Levi thus presents the female body, which she intended to free from ‘the violent male gaze’ and the way it dominates the beauty industry, as an object as well, albeit an object with a neutrality that equals that of a building block.
Francine van der Wiel
