Synopsis:

Sassy and energetic, in the video performance "Punching fruit" a woman rages against an unusual punch bag: a shopping net filled with fruits and vegetables.

Equipped with boxing gloves but wearing high heels she boxes with a joyful, angry violence, playing with her femininity to better undermine backward-looking conventions: "don’t play with your food", "A woman’s place is in the kitchen", "be beautiful but be quiet", "keep calm," "Boxing is for men"...

This cheeky and destructive gesture is an outlet, a metaphor for our small intimate dramas. "It doesn’t matter. It's all so ridiculous." The artist uses disproportionate force to literally blow apart this contemporary still life, to comic effect. While this is happening, the slow motion footage of the splashing becomes an object of fascination.

The protagonist catalyses destructive impulses - the woman is me. Wanting to take the stage also involves admitting that we have a score to settle with its excesses. It is the desire to undo codes that make me hit out. I will orchestrate my emotions and passions with a taste for transgressive provocation through capricious revolt.

This playful performance aims, therefore, to be cathartic, offering a furiously regressive pleasure to my spectators/accomplices.

Inspirations pictures:

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Presentation, intention, team:

The idea of boxing fruits started back when I was 22. I was boxing and I had energy to spare! I filmed fruits placed on a white table; knocking them methodically with my boxing gloves in order to crush them. I like the idea of violence that is both impulsive and premeditated. You walk a strange line when you express violent impulses by hitting a soft object: it’s a dichotomy, because it does not hurt! it takes you into an unthought region, and, at the same time, the gesture is a little vain: both cruel and gentle, “kowai-kawai” as the Japanese say. When I came across the rushes 15 years later, I decided to restage this devastating idea that I find so funny, powerful and meaningful beyond the mere pleasure of destroying. The idea that a face sometimes resembles a tomato we might want to burst.

This time, thanks to digital technology, the image will be much higher quality. Special effects will be added to amplify the effect of surprise with the help of explosives hidden in the fruit. I want to play with the glamour of a situation inspired by sexy fashion pictures and stubborn boxers from the movies. This gesture has its roots in the performances of contemporary artists such as Niki de St Phalle, Pipilotti Rist, Ana Mendieta and Marina Abramović, while moving in the direction of the aesthetics of video games.

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I will work with a team of leading professionals in their field:

The DoP Pierre Yves Toledano who works a lot in fashion photography and music will be responsible for creating a glossy / trashy rendering. http://pierreyvestoledano.4ormat.com/home

Our special effects supervisor Julien Poncet De La Grave, enabled us to perform fruit explosion tests, which were very satisfactory. The filming location is a former industrial site, with a concrete floor looking like a parking lot with old glass windows.

We are almost ready to run. But we lack the budget to complete the project. That is why I am appealing to your generosity - my bet is this unpretentious little project will entertain most of you, and, who knows, could even produce a certain liberating effect.

Samuel Saada took the cover picture: http://samuelsaada.wordpress.com

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Punching Fruit