Floating heart
The dance of the receptors #16
Nijmegen, The Netherlands 2023
POPOP Art Nijmegen
Invited by POPOP Art Nijmegen (Danielle Brans, Joos van der Zanden, Elky Rosa Gerritsen, Els Jacob)
Duration: 32 minutes
Photographs by Monika Deimling
Context:
‘Floating Heart’ is the final performance of the work cycle “The Dance of the Receptors” (2021-2023). The piece was performed in the late evening in front of St Jacob’s Chapel in Nijmegen and unfolded in a dimly lit environment where the light from street lamps and two carefully placed spotlights cast a delicate interplay of shadow and illumination.
This performance was part of the collaborative project Absurdity – The Hole in Rationality, initiated by PAS | Performance Art Studies and POPOP Art Nijmegen. In this context, Floating Heart explored the tensions between presence and transience, rationality and its ruptures – inviting the audience into a space where meaning flickered, much like the light that shaped the performance itself.
Description of actions:
A collage of performance images and sounds is created by executing the following actions with selected material.
Through the dimly lit streets, I move slowly, a frame in one hand, a burning candle before my face. Straw shifts between my teeth as I chew. I turn my body, shielding the fragile flame from the wind.
Arriving at the space, I reach into a bucket filled with water, drawing out a doll’s dress. Holding it up, I let its dripping fabric speak, rhythmic drops before submerging it once more. Again and again, the dress emerges and disappears. At the same time, I retrieve a small silver bell from the same bucket, its chime continuous – its sound altered each time it touches the water.
I lay the soaked dress on the frame and climb on the table. In my hands, a long stick: at one end, a white chair; at the other, a white flag. As I lift it high, the chair spins, the flag sways – an orbit of weight and weightlessness. Standing on top of the table, I gently wave the flag.
Yellow and red colour spreads across my white shirt as I slowly and deliberately bend my body backwards. A book captures my face. One by one, I tear out the pages and the wind scatters them around the room. I collect them again and attach them to my feet – words and paper become the floor beneath me.
Seated at the table, I tilt it gradually. The plates upon begin their inevitable slide. One by one, they fall—ceramic breaking into shards, sound marking each moment of destruction.
The white flag ignites, flames consuming its fabric as I wave it once more. Paper rolls unspool from my eyes, stretching into the night.
I place the bucket on the table, striking a yellow smoke torch. The air thickens with colour, swirling, dissipating—rising into the dark.
Finally, I take up the frame with the doll’s dress, the taste of straw still between my teeth, and slowly, I leave.
“I watched the performance and was mesmerised by the images that were unfolding before my eyes. And then there was this moment when the flames of the burning white flag slowly extinguished. I watched the white smoke disappear into the darkness of the night and then, suddenly, and so unexpectedly, the bells of the nearby church began to toll. I felt a shiver go through my body, I had goose bumps and was deeply moved. The song “War is over” by John Lennon started to play in my head and I had to take a deep breath.”
Reflection
by Elky Rosa Gerritsen
Cozy darkness surrounds me.
A soft yellow light shines over the old bricks.
A table in front of the old chaple is staring at me.
brrr.
I shiver.
I wonder.
My eyes are wide open, waiting for moments of shared wandering.
I stare at the table.
I stare at the table.
The table stares at me
It is not happening at the table.
I make a quick turn.
Wow.
The flickering candlelight behind the small glass window carried by a man in white fascinates me.
It is the presence.
The focus.
The ball of energy. Our energies. Our energies come together in the flickering light.
Wind go down!
Let the fire be the flame.
Sppss spsss (sound of pushing something in the water)
spps spss
Ahhhh
A child.
Maybe.
Is she dead?
The table is still empty.
I love the white.
The white outfit.
The white ‘tafelkleed’, what is ‘tafelkleed’ in English?
The white plates.
The white flag.
The white compared with the brown furniture. It is a clean image.
Perfectly fitting in the old surrounding.
Yes. The chair goes in the air.
It is turning. It is turning like a ballerina makes her pirouettes.
The spinning chair holds me.
Maybe in the same way fire can hold me.
The gaze, my gaze, is in trance.
In that image, in that moment of time and space there is no time.
I am totally into the spinning chair in the air.
What about the child?
Is she in danger?
Because of war?
Why else the white flag?
The white flag burns
The cozy fire becomes a depressive agressor.
Empty plates at the table.
The world is empty.
Why not just let it all fade away.
Break the emptiness softly into pieces.
One plate sticks.
The girl?
In the end it breaks as well.
We can lit a candle and remember.
Remember and repeat.
Remember and repeat.
Place it in a frame. Remember.
Remember how you feel.
Remember how you act.
Remember and try not to repeat.
Do not repeat.
Change your actions.
Be.
Stay together.
Hold it.