Start
/4
- Start
- 2010
- video, color, sound
- 2min, 5sec
Ion Grigorescu’s video "Start" stands in line with a series of works on body habits (such as "Sleep" from 2008) and shows the artist himself wearing only bathing trunks while trying to get ready for a sprint. Regardless of whether the sprint or run is successful, what counts is the starting position of the artist—who kneels on the floor, waiting for the action to begin. While his initial start and run takes only a few seconds, the single image then converts to a superimposed mode that has the artist initiating his run in opposite directions, thus mirroring the body postures. In this video, Grigorescu retraces Eadweard Muybridge’s studies on movement, reworking them from a present-day point of view. First, the superimposed and mirrored bodies try to escape toward either side of the vertical picture frames, while a subsequent shot shows the time progression by superimposing a sequence of the artist’s individual sprinting motions as seen from front and behind. Finally, a brief shot shows the artist after the sprint is over, holding his knuckles after having obviously experienced some pain. W.S.