Sanding To See

851_1756_Jacques_Martens
Photograph ©Jacques Martens, 2020
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SANDING TO SEE

Artists Duo N00NE Sandra Stanionyte || Yuki Kobayashi
Venice International Performance Art Week 2020
Duration: 6 hours

Action Sanding To See. We place in the space a sheet of 2×4 meters plywood and on each side by the wall 10 sanding sponges. The sheet of wood is unfixed. It can fall on both sides. We start the action by meeting each other in the space and standing still. We pick the sheet of wood and place between us. For the first hour of action, we are trying to find a balance and one pressure point between the two of us. We press the sheet of wood towards each other, the sheet moves in the space, we move with it, when one of us applies more pressure than the other one, wood falls down on one of us. After one hour of testing the weight, movement of the sheet, the strength of pressure we find a balance point and we start sanding towards each other. Yuki focuses on one spot, and in a few hours breaks through the first layer of wood. I can hardly get through even after 3 hours. The more time passes the harder it gets to do an action, but the body gets more focused and more determined to follow the action of sanding. Space gets more and more covered in dust, becomes hard to breathe. Yuki, at one point leaves, wood drops down. He goes down on his knees by the wall and starts coughing, tries to breathe. I pick up the wood, he comes back and we carry on sanding. We won’t stop until the exhibition is closing and everyone is being asked to leave. We stop.

The work is not about separation but rather of revealing, of trying to get through  – walls, separations, blind spots, boundaries.  This work operates literally as well as metaphorically.

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Photographs © Jacques Martens
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