Open Embrace

Video installation

Traditionally known as a dance of desire, the Tango offers insight into the performative aspects of human relationships, whilst simultaneously exposing the possibility for genuine emotion.

For this project a couple are filmed dancing the Tango in ‘open embrace’ (a position where the pair are required to dance face to face), an act which forces their shared intimacy into the public realm. Their acute concentration on one another falters with the knowledge of being watched, and their desire for closeness and communication is met with a prevailing sense of disconnection.

Open Embrace invites the viewer to enter the private circle of dance created by a pair of Tango dancers. In a dark, intimate space exist two screens, on which only the faces of the dancers can be seen. Stepping between these screens the viewer is made to imagine their own body in the space where tension and skin press against each other in the midst of extreme concentration, and performance blends with real emotion.

Open Embrace is part of Next Wave’s Remote program of events focussing on screen culture and art.