2018 THE CAVE

15403853_10154326944979195_2362352766966746983_o

Fernando is a magician who brings us to different universes. So he can do it if we are going to co-exist with him, let him guide us. Also, he has an effect as hypnotising… There is a bunch of different references… I can notice popular culture, high culture, ritual, religion, anti culture,mythology, marketing – Coca Cola, Apple, which might be a new religion. By Anna Volkland / Silent Period during Battle of Critics at Garage Contemporary Museum of Art 2018 [THE CAVE]

 

This is, probably, the strangest interpretation of Plato`s myth of the cave, which I`ve ever seen. And in order to capture its meaning I`d like to draw your attention to several issues. The first is this vibrant, psychedelic visual aspect of the piece, which draws on glitch, vaporwave and retrofuturistic aesthetics dealing with pop culture, technologies, consumerism, internet art and nostalgia. Capturing viewers attention, it immerses us into affective images, which become a spectacular environment, kind of new digital nature, producing its “inhabitant” (Belfiore), and its “natural” elements: “the cave” (which is a plastic tent), “the stones” (made of foam plastic). This environment is technology-based, flat (as the wall of Plato`s cave, where the shadows are casted), affective and semantic: it is always in flow, importing images from its endless memory and archive — corporate brands as well as ancient figurines of elephants and monkeys. As in postmodern project, it confronts the idea of history, mixing images of the past, present and future, of pop culture and prehistoric art, giving them the same status of simulacrums or shadows. The second point is the dancer, a caveman and an inhabitant of this digital nature of signs. It seems, he is being trapped, infected, transformed by this vivid visuality. Images are based on code, adverts and brands, as well as all capitalist production, are based on rationality. But when being embodied in performer`s presence, technologies make their insane and esoteric entity visible. It seems, Belfiore wants us to think, how our flat digital environment can produce contemporary corporeality. Balancing a powerful emotional impact and nuanced reflection, this work raises vital questions in our post-internet world. Anna Kozonina (Russia) Silent Period during Battle of Critics at Garage Contemporary Museum of Art 2018 [THE CAVE]

TML20180125_45161
Photo  : Thomas Lenden

 

THE CAVE is a performance installation investigating projections. Belfiore creates psychedelic installations and plays with constructed atmospheres by projecting colors, live recording, images for green screen and advertisement.

Projections are the presentation of an image on a surface, for example on a cinema screen or a mental image viewed as reality. But projections are also an estimate or forecast of a future situation based on a study of present trends. Projections on the body becomes a question and a critic on assuming and assuming. Projections layer complexity. Projections are excessive screen time, are illusions and attempts to hope a future.

Manipulating image, sounds and objects live and on the video, Belfiore layers the virtual and investigates constructed realities, and questioning on the screen world we are living in. As a Live Dj for his own dance Belfiore ‘vaporwaves” the theatrical space.

The subculture surrounding vaporwave is often associated with an ambiguous or satirical take on consumer capitalism and popular culture and tends to be characterised by a critical engagement with the popular entertainment, technology and advertising of previous decades which Belfiore bring to question our own times.

Belfiore is also inspired time by the documentary ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’ by Werner Herzog (2013) and the allegory of Plato’s cave. As a Shaman, Belfiore dives deep into his unconsciousness to reveal his wild creativity and power of transformation.

Fernando juli (3).
Photo : Pierre Ballings

 

Concept, Choreography and Performance Fernando Belfiore Outside Eye Charlot Van der Meer and Vincent Riebeek Video Support and Effects Jeremy From AlexEtJeremy Craft Stage Maaike Fransen Light, Video, Sound Fernando Belfiore Text Compilation of varied authors Creation support by Residencies of Beam Lab, Dansmakers with thanks to Suzy Blok, Moving Futures and EAD with thanks to José Fernando Peixoto de Azevedo Production Dansmakers Amsterdam and DANSCO Photography Courtesy: Pierre balling, Thomas Lenden, PaulMcGee and Thiemi Higashi

Screen Shot 2017-11-08 at 01.02.24.png

2018 01 26 The Cave -Fernando -75
Paul McGee | THE CAVE by Fernando Belfiore

DATES

2018

26 January De NWE Vorst Tilburg

7 February Kikker, Utrecht

17 February Grandtheater, Groningen

6 March Stadtheater, Mainz

31 March Dansmakers Amsterdam

21 July  Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (RU)

2019

26 February THE CAVE OCCI SpellBound queer party Amsterdam

23 MayTHE CAVE at Arti et Amicitie Zachtzinnig Radicaal Festival Amsterdam

19-31 THE CAVE August Residency at Tanzhaus Zurich with Showing at Studio1
 
2021
 
6 June THE CAVE at Mandala Performance Festival  – Centrum na Przedmieściu –
Wroclaw (PO)
 
 
 
_F7A8580IMG-3865IMG-4432IMG-4434IMG-4435IMG-4437IMG-4438IMG-4441IMG-4443IMG-4450IMG-4451IMG-4453IMG-4456IMG-4457IMG-4458IMG-4459IMG-4460IMG-4463IMG-4464IMG-4466IMG-5438IMG-5464Screen Shot 2019-08-31 at 14.55.17Screen Shot 2019-08-31 at 14.59.53Screen Shot 2019-08-31 at 15.02.08Screen Shot 2019-08-31 at 15.07.38Screen Shot 2019-08-31 at 15.09.18Screen Shot 2019-08-31 at 15.17.29_F7A9099_F7A8788_F7A8470
_F7A9123.jpg
Photo Above :  Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (RU)

 

We have Plato’s cave, this is tired. I propose we replace shadows w/ game film, walls screaming “thats just a great T-E stunt right there.”zizeck

Whereas, to quote the philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Zizek, ”Say, are the puppeteers who deal with the shapes political manipulators, so that Plato also proposes an implicit theory of ideological manipulation, or are we, cavemen, directly deluding ourselves? However, there is a deeper problem here, which could be best put in Hegel’s terms.

One can, of course, start with the naïve notion of people perceiving true reality from a limited/distorted perspective and thus constructing in our imagination false idols which we mistake for the real thing; the problem with this naïve notion is that it reserves for us the external position of a neutral observer who can, from his safe place,

compare true reality with its distorted mis(perception).

What gets lost here is that we all ARE these people in the case-so how can we, immersed into the cave’s spectacle, as it were step onto our own shoulder and gain insight into true reality?” J E P – Number 18 – 2004 / 1 ”Burned by the Thing” Slavoj Zizek http://www.psychomedia.it/jep/number18/zizek.htm

I personally experience mostly the world now thought screens, I consume and render, so, I would like to strive this work to re-think and bring that to observation and subvert this experience. I would like to find possible places of liberation. Our 3rd Eye.
Thiemi Higashi-20
Photo: Thiemi Higashi

 

 

Fernando juli (8)Fernando juli (6a)Fernando juli (4)

Photography above by Pierre Ballings 

 

 

screen-shot-2017-10-26-at-15-54-46.png
Black Mirror S:1 E:2

 

 

Screen Shot 2017-11-12 at 17.08.10

 

Thiemi Higashi-34
Thiemi Higashi | THE CAVE by Fernando Belfiore

 

-Are you saying that your attempt to understand the fundamental operations of nature lead you to a set of equations that are indistinguishable from the equations that drive search engines and browsers on our computers

-Yeah that is correct

Space-chat
This design, which was etched on a plaque attached to each of the two Pioneer spacecraft, was considered pornographic by some (Illustration: NASA)

Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 20.26.15

21373393_173084793263696_8294936060354363392_n

I SHOULD DIE SYMBOLICALLY EVERYDAY

TML20180125_45161TML20180125_45242TML20180125_45426TML20180125_45516TML20180125_45555TML20180125_45626
TML20180125_45390
Photography above courtesy by Thomas Lenden
 
 
2018 01 26 The Cave -Fernando -102018 01 26 The Cave -Fernando -282018 01 26 The Cave -Fernando -422018 01 26 The Cave -Fernando -522018 01 26 The Cave -Fernando -75
2018 01 26 The Cave -Fernando -1142018 01 26 The Cave -Fernando -902018 01 26 The Cave -Fernando -120Photography above courtesy by Paul mcGeeThiemi Higashi-4Thiemi Higashi-6Thiemi Higashi-7Thiemi Higashi-10Thiemi Higashi-11Thiemi Higashi-33Thiemi Higashi-34
Photos above, courtesy by Thiemi Higashi
Banksy