I Love You
Dalibor Martinis
29:30, Croatia, 1995
In the dump and claustrophobic spaces of an underground war shelter two men and one woman try desparately to establish a relationship. A need for love is confronted and often confused with rage and violence. Each individual brings in his/her body as a chip but also as a weapon for attack.
Driving simultaneousely from western media images, from MTV to CNN, and immediate, particularly dangerous post-communist reality, "I love you!" offers some unpleasant parallels. Sport is violence, love is death, sex is television, body is pain, contact is confrontation.
The piece is not built around one narrative idea or plot. The provocative fragmentary scenes in which everybody seems to fight everybody turn suddenly into tender dance duets which are interrupted by new conflicts.
The only words ever spoken are those from the title: "I love you!". They seem to be part of a radio message and draw nothing but laughter: Instead of words performers exchange saliva as a bodily confirmation of total trust. A kiss becomes a text of endurance for two lovers, a spasm which draws them time and again in an exhausting embrace. Body is a medium and a machine of this piece. Even the camera attached by stedycam apparatus to the body of the cameraman becomes a participating member of the choregraphy.
Produced as black and white, the video offeres exceptional visual beauty which counterparts the roughness of the theme. Frequent and unpredictable changes in rhythm underline the high risk itensity of the performance.
I LOVE YOU! (Montazstroj) is based on the elements of the stage piece "Everybody Goes To Disco From Moscow To San Francisco" by author and coreographer Borut [eparovi}, performed by Montazstroj and awarded with Special Mention of The Jury at 4.Recontres Choreo-graphique de Bagnolet 1994.