M. 2062( LOLA MONTEZ IN BERLIN), 2014
For this work, Gonzalez-Foerster draws on the 1955 film Lola Montez, in which its director Max Ophüls envisioned the life of a minor historical character mostly known for her amorous exploits with famous men, among them Franz Liszt and the King of Bavaria, Ludwig I. The film represents her as a woman caught in the exploitative machinery of a sensationalist public and poignantly visualizes this exploitation through the figure’ s display as scandalous beast in a circus. Played with intentional artifice by Martine Carol, the starkly illuminated figure displayed on a pedestal in the middle of the circus ring, epitomized spectacle itself, while at same time, her frozen features appeared to be trying to deflect the public’ s hunger for degradation.
Gonzalez-Foerster’ s installation Lola Montez in Berlin uses an edited excerpt from the much longer live performance the artist staged in 2014 in Berlin. The video focuses on the character’ s face, awash in blue light, in the process of being displayed. Installed in a darkened room, the 3:58 minute video is projected onto a mirror that in turn reflects part of the image across the room onto another surface. This dynamic of the projection and reflection recalls that of the spectators’ gaze, both in the performance at the circus and in the film.
Documentation of apparition performed by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster M. 2062( Lola Montez in Berlin), Circus Cabuwazi, Berlin, May 27, 2014
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