Gwendoline Robin

Works for Live Art Denmark
2013 2 performances for Hitparaden 1.

Performance 1
Exposing her body to fire and explosives is probably the part of Gwendoline’s work that she is most known for. The image below, photographed by Malle Madsen, was taken exactly in the most explosive moment of Gwendoline’s first performance at our festival Hitparaden 1. Standing on a metal staircase outside the festival venue, covered head to toe in a diy safety suit, her body is briefly lit up by a series of explosions. In a second image, fire quickly and menacingly creeps up the stairs along a lit fuse, until it again reaches the performer’s body, and a series of small, anti-climactical explosions of fireworks follow. The performance is over in roughly three minutes.

Photo: Malle Madsen

Performance 2
The video below shows both performances that Gwendoline presented at the festival. While the first one, with the fireworks, lastet only a few minutes, the second one invites the speactators to follow the slow, meditative progression of the artist circling a small mound of black earth with long delicate glass pipes, which over time, disintegrate. You can follow the action from minute 3:30 on the video. But alas, this performance, too, has an explosive finale.

About the Artist
In the work of Gwendoline Robin we are always confronted with immediacy, a report to the present moment given by the suddenness of the explosion, the essence of fire and smoke evanescence. The spectator will be confronted with surprise, fear, danger, relief, wonder, and humor, too. In her research we almost always find an instant confrontation of herself as a moving performer with diverse materials.

More info can be found on her website.