Marine Hugonnier
Desire Is Not Much But Nonetheless…, 201516mm film5'
The film is a study of the Sleeping Hermaphrodite (second century AD). Stretched out in erotic abandon on the mattress, the figure sleeps. Yet Hermaphrodite has only fallen half asleep: the twisting pose of the body and the tension apparent down to the slightly raised left foot are indicative of a dream state.” This film makes two revolutions around the sculpture. The first tour starts on the feet, comes up the back, goes up to the face and reveals its bisexuality. Then the film goes backwards and comes up the knees, its penis and breast, its head and goes down along the back to the feet. These two rounds offer two different readings of the sculpture to reveals its ambiguity and problematic. The first round offers to see one body that becomes two; it thus refers to the myth of Narcissus, while the second round offers to see two bodies that become one, revealing the monstrous aspect of the sculpture. The sculpture is animated. These animations are inserted near editing points thus creating an illusion. The constant movement of the camera around the sculpture adds to this ambiguity; the sculpture seems animated where it is still.
If the nature of the desire of the Hermaphrodite escapes definition, could it raise the question of the nature of desire itself? The sculpture appears in this light as an incarnation of the paradoxes of desire.
