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SLAVE UNIT

BE  I  2002  I  6'10'  I  Cel Crabeels

’Slave unit’ is a notion which indicates the status of network equipment. In photography it denotes the power of flash installations; a distinction is always made between dominant and subjected. In the video by Cel Crabeels the idea is applied to a setting with two dancers, a director, the camera, video equipment, the stage and the audience. The work constitutes a cross-over between a dance performance, a photoscope and a video installation. 

A man and a woman photograph each other in turns, precisely when the camera’s ‘slave unit’ flashes. The photographer/ hunter turns into a model/ slave and vice versa. Simultaneously the image literally turns around as well, building on the principle of reversibility. On various levels the work comments the individual in his mediatized environment.