Gábor Bódy

ARTWORK

video art

1982

German

This videotape comes from Lermontov's epical poem "The Demon"; and is a series of loosely grouped excerpts and pictures that complement each other in a contrapunctual manner. I consider this production as the first part of a continuous work entitled The Anthology of Seduction - which explains the subtitle. In this anthology room must be found for all the gems of European and non-European literature dealing with the theme of seduction: thus among others, Don Giovanni, Faust, a Korean fairy-tale, Kierkegaard's "The Diary of a Seducer" and Madame Butterfly. Principally there exist but one story of seduction: that of the interchange of seduced and seducer, and in my mind this story takes place in the Berlin of today. Although parts of the anthology can already be found in the pictures, the text is restricted to Lermontov's Damon. In the last scene of the video for example, where the face of a woman turns into a face of another. (...) (G.B.)