Cecum

Cecum by Inbar Hagai :: Supported by FRFF (#2022-016) from STUDIO for Creative Inquiry on Vimeo.

Cecum places the viewer in a constant vertical ascension through a sequence of maximalist and fantastical dream-like animated events and interstitial spaces. The ascension movement allows for meditation on wonderment, perception and consciousness, as if the viewer is within a perpetual clear elevator, seeing but never being seeing, observing a foreign ever-changing hierarchy of simultaneous occurrences, gradually exposed to the correlations between the various layers, which remain oblivious to each other, similar to the cinematic knowledge gaps or the web eternal feed.

Deeply inspired by contemporary dance and structured by musical elements such as frequency, repetition, and rhythm, the work displays an unconventional array in which the narrative and non-events are weighed equally. Through the surrealistic occurrences and abstractions created by the internal choreography of the virtual objects and bodies, Cecum resonates with questions about theatricality and social performativity, while queering the shell-like and substanceless virtual material.

Cecum was exhibited as part of the joint installation “Saddle Point” with artist Itamar Stamler at HaMidrasha Gallery in Tel Aviv between February – March 2022. Saddle Point consists of an inflatable and elevated sculptural environment – a stage, an experimental facility or a playground –out of which protrude two special seats for watching two VR pieces, one by each of the artists. The works create two parallel layers of experience, two experiences of journey (one vertical and one horizontal), in which the viewer’s body and the physical dimension assume meaning and challenge the virtual experience. This project made possible with support from FRFAF grant# 2022-016.