DIE FREGATTE (The Frigate) is a video set within a community center in which a group of men, a woman and a cameraman are involved in a peculiar scenario revolving around a model of a black ship. The communication between the men and the woman is entirely non-verbal, creating a series of silent tableaux. A Freudian symbol of the female sexuality that men desire, the ship causes the male characters to behave perversely around the woman, forcing her to engage in poses that resemble those seen in pornographic films. In front of the cameraman, their posturing is disembodied and awkward. Perhaps read as a comment on the normalization of hetero-normative gender roles, The Frigate considers the violent and dehumanised body in mass media. Also shown in the exhibition is the main prop in the video, the model ship, as well as a series of photographs of its different profiles.
The film was presented at the 5th Berlin Biennale in a dank, brick-lined cellar to which the artists added heavy , self-closing metal doors, further enhancing the work's strange oppressiveness and the complete absence of irony.
Credits:
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Film by: Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys
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Actors: Abdelouahab Chouite, Wojtek Kulwanowsky, Gerald Fenerberg, Samir Achab Marrakchi, Jeroen Piebenga, Erik Thys, Marianne Thys, Maarten Vanheusden
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Assistants: Erwan Kenzo Nakata, Joost Schouppe
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Production manager: Jana Phlips
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Production assistant: Margot Vanheusden
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Music: Erik Thys
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Catering: Jana Phlips, Danai Anesiadou
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Thanks to: Michael Beutler, Gallery Isabella Bortolozzi, Gallery Dependance, Elena Filipovic, Frac Île de France le Plateau, Michel François, Jodie Hruby, Jan Phlips, Anne Laure Riboulet, Thorsten Van Kerckhove, Stephanie Van Spreter, Raf Swevers
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Produced and commissioned by 5th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art
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Supported by: The Flemish Community - Fine Arts department
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Courtesy the artists and gallery, Micheline Szwajcer, Brussels
DIE FREGATTE is part of the Collection Museum van Elsene, Brussels.
Screenings:
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2008: 5th Berlin Biennale (DE)






