Hood Divers
performance, group ephemer
public space, Münster 2003
In 'Hood Divers', ephemer experimented with the border and limitation of one's own body, made visible and tangible by funnel-shaped hoods made of polypropylene, which - when put on - channel and focus the gaze, blocking out a large part of the surroundings. Even the sounds are perceived in a new, intensified way, the head moves in its own sound space. The performers' contact with each other is thus made more difficult and slowed down. Actions and movements take on a surreal, autistic quality that seems to be lifted out of the speed and routine of everyday life, but at the same time also symbolizes the isolated way in which we often walk through the world.
The group, uniformly dressed in business-suit-grey and each equipped with a semi-transparent head funnel, appears as homogeneous and standardized as isolated. The head appears separated from the body, the face is only visible when an audience member faces the performer head-on. Then, however, it is a clearly 'framed' individual sign. The funnel, which lets only a part of the world in, a part of the ego out, poses the question of boundary and limitation of public and private space.
