Charles Fairbanks.

Flexing Muscles

Date: 2012 
Length: 21:00 min
Format: 16:9
Specifications: Colour, Sound, Single Channel
Courtesy the artist

“Flexing Muscles” has its origins in observations of Lucha Libre, a Mexican form of professional wrestling in the 30s, which Charles Fairbanks made during his time in Mexico as a photographer. That Lucha Libre is more than just an ordinary wrestling show is made clear by the description of this sport as a mass phenomenon whose practice is deeply rooted in Mexican society. This short film in the style of a documentary highlights the popularity of these fighters who, regardless of the way they are admired in their communities, still have to go about their daily work in order to earn their living. The two contrasting worlds of show-fighting and earning their livelihood have physical labour in common. The artist shows the fighters’ two spheres of life, in their daily jobs and masked in their fantasy roles,  one after the other. In the final sequence the viewer is given a completely new view of the contests when the artist himself takes part as a competitor.  The use of a camera fixed to Fairbanks’ mask makes possible a perspective which shows the untouched reality close up. The final point-of-view-shots allow the viewer to look through the eyes of El Gato Tuerto, a figure created by the artist specially for this film.

Miriam Cockx
 

Interview:

►1. Your work has been chosen among over 2000 festival entries to participate in VIDEONALE.14.  In which context  do you prefer to present  your work, festival/cinema context or exhibition? And what kind of difference does the respective mode of presentation mean for you / your work?

I love the context of cinema: strangers sitting together in the dark, letting themselves slip, together, into the world of the movie. I've completed five short films and I love showing them together: this way viewers become even more immersed in the world of my videos, my mind. But then, on the other hand, a gallery can foster unique encounters with a video: more likely to watch on their feet, gallery-goers might be more embodied – open to relate kinetically, corporally, to the spaces and bodies of the video.

► 2. Art can be seen as a mirror that registers and reflects life or as a tool that transforms it. Is there a particular theme, concept or problem your art addresses the most?

Four of my five completed videos have something to do with wrestling. Though the styles of wrestling (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, American Folkstyle, Mexican Lucha Libre), and the styles of video vary, they all display my fascination with corporeal knowledge, expressions of masculinity, and human culture more generally. I'm presently working on a series of videos that have nothing to do with wrestling, but those same interests shine through. Additionally, I'm interested in the ethnographic / documentary encounter – that is, the relationship between the videographer and the subject – and in the form this encounter takes in the completed work.

► 3. In which way is the video medium an excellent possibility to express your intended subjects, especially in contrast to other media you use? Or do you work exclusively with video?

I also make photographs and installations, and I'm beginning a series of sculptures. But I choose video whenever I want to represent – or re-present – physical sensations, the body in time, corporeal experience. I first jumped to video from photography because I wanted to control the context of the images, tell stories around them, and include elements of my relationship to the subject: our encounter, and the (social / economic / cultural) context of the work.

► 4. If you have the chance to ask the visitors of the VIDEONALE.14 exhibition questions about your own work, what would be your question?

I'd wonder:

How do you relate to this video as a spectator?
* Identification with the character(s)?
* As a physical body in relation to other physical bodies?
* As a series of spectacular characters / events?
* As a culture that's foreign / other – or one that's familiar?

And if the viewer watches the whole video, I'd ask "What is this piece about?" (besides, of course, being about lucha libre wrestling.)