Make-up of the Fata Morana – 1992, video projection 20 min. performance
The notion that an individual being is able to qualitatively intervene directly through its body or external machine into its environment gave rise to the concept of the video performance in this room – Licking the Fata Morana (1992, 20 min). The action takes place in an airport, the performer acting as a conceptual hero, like Chris Burden. He walks away on the airport tarmac and you get the feeling that he will never come back as Bas Jan Ader. Do you want to walk away from the video and save yourself some time? You shouldn’t do that, you’d miss the point of this whole expedition – the artist, after a time when you can only see a mere dot of him, signals the cameraman with the glare of an iron to zoom out. He then heats his face to red with the iron and massage, and as he unzooms, the temperature inversion causes his skin color to spill across the airport tarmac. A mirage rather than a psychedelia, a fusion of intimacy and immensity.