++++ There are people who do not find it easy to just be there because being there without having to make something definite of it — for instance, in a room with other people — can be difficult. Being there simply without having to think about how you should best conduct yourself towards whom, what you should say, how you should hold your hands, when you should laugh and when you shouldn't.
Inertial ability is what Olivier Bardin calls this gift, this specific kind of uncomplicated existence. The video artist, who was born in 1968 and lives in Paris, invites people to appear in his films and leaves them to themselves in front of a white background, while he exposes them to construed situations without intervening any further. His role is that of the incisive observer with a camera who investigates and documents like a behavioural scientist. His cinematic results do not have anything in common with sociological material, however.
On the contrary, his shots of people interacting in diverse ways have great clarity and an almost unreal aesthetics. The laughing, gesticulating, lifting of the eyebrows in thought, an abrupt head movement and pushing aside hair from the face which is performed by his actors of all ages and cultural backgrounds seems as if the people shown were not among those for whom it is difficult to simply be there. Bardin manipulates retrospectively by cutting his film material into short sequences which he puts together again in another, new rhythm.
A dense sequence of movement arises, commonly used when long processes have to be presented in a short space of time. There is no plot or action. Despite that, the viewer quickly finds a way into the narrative mode of presentation and develops an inkling of what could be the subject of the conversation. Placed behind the bar of the cafe in the Frankfurt Kunstverein, the video projection forms a fitting backdrop, a second level of what is really taking place there or could take place, except that it is more appealing. Interestingly, the post-editing which Bardin carries out, the re-choreographing of the encounters on the cutting table, the selection and arrangement in a new, unnatural sequence makes the people shown seemed particularly authentic. Only the retrospective aestheticization enables a kind of ideal existence.
Frankfurter Kunstverein, Markt 44, Am Römerberg, until 25 August. hoh