St. Vitas Dance

St. Vitas Dance

Charlemagne Palestine 
1975, 8:50 min, color, sound

Description

These work was produced at the Oppenheim Studio in Cologne, Germany, and features the emblematic objects that are Palestine's performance signatures: scarves, cognac, knives and teddy bears. In St. Vitas Dance, Palestine holds the camera close to his body. Sitting before a ritualistic display of teddy bears, dolls and scarves, with only his shadow visible, he begins an otherworldly chant that seems to seize his entire body. The point of view of the moving camera becomes a visual (and visceral) extension of his keening. In an evocation of symbolic gesture and ritual, the images form an abstraction of pure movement.

Available on

You Should Never Forget the Jungle/St. Vitas Dance
1975, 20 min, color, sound