Purple PRESENTS: “TRYPTIQUE” BY CECILIA BENGOLEA

An extract of “Tryptique” – Oneness, 2020
Colour and black & white 4K video with sound
Six hours mixed randomly with a software of algorithms
Commissioned by the city of Geneva

For the past ten years, Cecilia Bengolea has collaborated with dancers and deejays in Jamaica and Japan, such as Equinoxx, Craig Black Eagle, PrettyPrettyStickyWhine, Bombom. Oneness is a six hour archive randomly mixed using a software algorithm. Her Tryptique installation is a multifaceted work, in which she shares the practise of global dancehall, while juxtaposing images of a choreography created with the Jamaican national synchronised swimming team. Tryptique combines 15-metre wide panoramic views, weather conditions, wildlife, land and water, with footage created in collaboration with the urban dancehall community. The multi-author choreographies, the vibrations of the sound
systems and the natural sound environment, perceptible on the ground as well as in the water, give rise to the forms and rituals that lead to deep states of consciousness that builds and empower the dancehall community.

“Dancing in the wet weather of the Caribbean, sweat and tropical rain further dissolve the boundaries between inside and outside, reminding us perhaps that inner body fluid is an electrical conductor that functions for the body in similar ways to the synapses of the brain – creating new pathways and communication highways redefining sentience. Working on steps is just one part of the endeavor to synchronize and compose ourselves within a state of greater liquidity. The movements I’m drawn to are those in which the body is driven by a physical intelligence of its own. Through ritual and repetition, arms, legs and torso seem to develop an independent memory. Relieved of the cumbersome call and response mechanism that separates action from thought, the body begins to describe a life of its own. The beginning and ends of the spiritual and the profane dance are here forgone in favor of an actualization of a polymorphous erotic identity – comforming a collective body.”

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