Luzie Meyer The Balcony (2016)

Trailer:  https://vimeo.com/154646014

Luzie Meyer’s The Balcony is a piece of video work loosely based on Jean Genet’s Le Balcon. In a brothel three men – a bishop (Reece York), a general (Dan Kwon) and a judge (Salomo Andrén) – live out their fantasies of domination with a prostitute (Luzie Meyer) who also happens to be the camerawoman filming this scene. As an argument breaks out over who has the power to tell the story, sadistic and masochistic desires are negotiated, disguised and revealed. The video, which was filmed using two cameras, places the actual author of the image within the view of a second witness who is outside her control. Sound effects, music and pin sharp montages interrupt the narrative continuity. The synchronisation leads to a discrepancy between the characters’ body and mind and blurs the dividing lines between the author and the role and between reality and fiction. The narrative voice does not appear trustworthy as it is the voice of both the prostitute and the author. It describes the scene and in the process increasingly complicates the relationship between reality and fiction.

With support from Städelschule Portikus e.V.