UMBRA #1

of LACMANOVIC Valentina

NETHERLANDS, 2018, 00:05:00

Production : LACMANOVIC Valentina
Genre : Video art
Keyword : Performance, action

Summary :
UMBRA#1 is a part of a project consisting of two video performances and a collection of photo performance works around the notion of UMBRA (shadow) and its aesthetic, philosophical anthropological and astronomical aspects.

 "Latin for "shadow", umbra is the innermost and darkest part of a shadow, where the light source is completely blocked by the occluding body. An observer in the umbra experiences a total eclipse." (Wikipedia)

The artwork refers to the allegory of the cave from Plato's "Republic". 
The only way we can observe the reality is influenced by the motion of the astral bodies, creating shadows and shifts in light and darkness. All observation is subjective.

Nowadays, in times of “post-truth” we live in a cave where the shadows - comments, analysis and documentation of an experience - are seemingly more important than the source of light, the experience itself.
The source creating the shadow becomes irrelevant and the shadow becomes an entity on its own. 
The encounter in the world of shadows is distorted and illusory. 
In Plato's allegory the only person daring to leave the cave and face the light is the Philosopher. In the project UMBRA, the artist is the one who goes in the light and deliberately faces her own shadows.
Umbra#1 is also a hommage to (female) artists, authors of parietal art (cave paintings).

Filmed from the hand by the artist.

to print