Performance La Ribot’s Distinguished Piece No. 45 is a unique piece. Not part of any series, it can be seen as a preamble to the fifth series, Another Distinguée, created the same year (distinguished piece No. 49, Olivia, featured in the series, is undeniably inspired by it), but this would be an oversimplification. Requiring no […]
Performance
La Ribot’s Distinguished Piece No. 45 is a unique piece. Not part of any series, it can be seen as a preamble to the fifth series, Another Distinguée, created the same year (distinguished piece No. 49, Olivia, featured in the series, is undeniably inspired by it), but this would be an oversimplification. Requiring no particular stage design, this distinguished piece unfolds in the space like a cloth spread out for an impromptu lunch on the grass.
In this piece, La Ribot is accompanied by Juan Loriente, with whom she has collaborated on several occasions, notably as a duo on Los trancos del avestruz (1993) and Oh! Sole in 1995.
Together they take their places on an emerald velvet carpet. A singular couple in their Sunday best, the action unfolds in precious silence. Carefully and methodically, La Ribot paints her companion and then herself, smothering every trace of their identities. We are reminded of the Viennese Actionists when the first strokes of paint begin to cover Juan Loriente’s figure. However, this image quickly fades; cruel as Distinguished Piece No. 45 is, it is equally imbued with gentleness. The brushstrokes are lavished like caresses or delicate attention. At one point, we think we hear a scream—it’s only a musical snippet soon silenced—and silence returns. The gestures cease, and all that remains of La Ribot and her companion is a splash of color, a red relief on a velvet carpet.
The scene is obviously reminiscent of the previous Distinguished Pieces, Eufemia (1994), or Another Bloody Mary (2000), which also evoke the image of a crime. Here too, the color red underscores the act of violence that has just occurred. However, unlike Another Bloody Mary, which ultimately offers a spectacle that resembles a tabloid image, simultaneously glamorous and voyeuristic, Distinguished Piece No. 45, rich in substance and depth, can provoke in the viewer the feeling of taking part in an intimate drama.
Distinguished Piece No. 45 directly transgresses the boundaries of disciplines and arts. At the beginning, the action of the piece is centered on the act of painting, and the paint eventually completely covers the performers’ bodies, diluting their human character to sublimate them into a kind of organic sculpture. Long after the final gesture, the bodies lie on the ground, while the paint hardens on their skin and clothing. The action of the piece then plunges into the stillness of the almost static bodies, the viewer avidly scrutinizing not the performers but a kind of baroque tableau vivant. The moment lingers in contemplation.
Manuel G. Vincente