 T h e Digital Portraits Project was done in conjunction with The Association forArt in the Community, based in Israel. The concept behind the project was to bring art and Industry closer, by transforming the trivial into art and thus allowing a dialogue with wider horizons for both sides. This time the idea was to work with a major Israeli factory producer of precision injection-molded disposable medical devices, and a provider of innovative solutions for specialized flow control needs. The factory supplies its products to the medical industry's leading companies, and today is the premier provider of stopcocks and manifolds to the US and European OEM markets. Using the factory employees eyes - snap shots - as a starting point seemedappropriate in order to instill intimacy and draw unpredictable meanings from seemingly regular faces-worlds. Jacques Marzan idea was to improvise an intimate and authentic dialogue with each given photo of a person he had never seen in person. Each one provoked a different spirit and concept. Luckily, it happened to be much more challenging and fascinating experience than expected. The portraits collection of about 100 employees comprises hundreds of portraits;individual and collective ones. Some are on view here. Images 21-50 are individual portraits, 51-80 are of group portraits. A multimedia projection of the portraits will be shown at the factory this year. |
| You and Me, Us and Them W h e n I was first presented with the snap shots of factory employees - as a starting point of my work - I felt a need to digest the first impression, to internalize it and listen to myself for a long while before looking at them again. I had to prepare myself mentally for the journey. The high quantity of new faces -of people who were unknown to me - by itself, had its effect. No matter what-I thought- I had to declare war against anonymity. I had to dismantle all traps of triviality and indifference in search for possible hints in a momentary 'frozen' look. My time with each face alone, intimately, emotionally and intellectually became fascinating. Their spell became gradually evidently engaging. My increasing openness to them seemed to unravel many veils of memories and naturally intertwined them with their presence. It became clear I was on the right intuitive track for my desired dialogue with the 'other'. The human race has been around for so long, yet the magical power of the 'other' presence has not diminished. You and Me, Us and Them. Insiders versus outsiders and all possible gradations: kibbutz members, residents, hired laborers, new comers versus old timers etc. Them, I was thinking of the kibbutz, its factory industry as part of the Kibbutz reality. It is 2004, Israel society has clearly gone many crucial changes; inevitable evolutionary changes .The people behind the photos, their identity, daily activity, responsibilities, Inertia, work habits-rituals and intimacy at the factory . Their reflexes and association patterns regarding the kibbutz, cities, hospitals and their perspective on the world in general and of their own fate. Was I looking at them, for them? Was it at myself through them?, probably both. Were they looking at me? After all we do own each other by our recognition and memory process. An infinite network of memory anchors and sentiments of un nameable variations. Any portrait reflects part of my identity and its attributes. Each one of the portraits I created could become theirs with me in it when they look at it. The symmetry of exposure should be conceived as an indication of courage and instinctual generosity. Both sides art and community have plenty to gain, but before that we have to lose fear. As soon as we expose ourselves to something, it becomes part of our internal world. We are still birth givers and hunters on this earth; refinement is just a guise, a form of accumulated culture. I was trying to imagine their experience while posing for the camera : their possible self consciousness, uncontrolled stream of thoughts in hope to condense as much as possible of their-selves into one split second. A moment that could truly reflect all their complex being. Despite the impossibility of such single expression the wish to make it happen becomes almost a reflex similar to our wish to live forever. A second later it is over. An ID moment that could serve as the DNA map of the spirit and the mystery of our organism. Questions and growing wonder: who is going to see me? What would she/he make of me? Would he/she love me at first sight, adore me, be curios about me, respect me, or maybe dislike me or care a little of me? Of course I want to be loved. I want to be remembered and feel important for somebody. Back to the 'Journey for 2 computers and one pilot', my Mac-computer, the none- cognizant one, and myself. I was one of those anonymous and unexpected people who would later see their faces in those photos and hopefully peal off some layers of their anonymity, turning it to 'Art'. They were looking at the camera. There after, I was looking at them, in those photos, meaning to decipher the frozen codes of seemingly objective visual information. Network of pixels. The separating wall between reality and virtuality is becoming rapidly transparent and almost unnoticeable. Could be less confusing if we perceived them as categories of thinking. Eye for an Eye and much more than that. The eyes as magnificent islands surrounded the ocean of skin around them. Our sensorial organs, the nose, the lips, the ears and then the enveloping hair around the flesh. The complexion of the faces, the hue of theirbreathing skin. Sure, thoughts of various nature have crossed my mind as I lingered and fixed my look pensively at the faces in front of my eyes. Galaxies, Civilizations, politics, languages, Ideologies and world community, nations and boundaries: real and cultural. Israel early egalitarian days, Communism, Socialism, individualism, family unit, morality, religion, ethnicity, birth, mortality, female, male, age, sexuality, human desires, compassion, love, fear, pensiveness, aggressiveness, sadness, flickering hope and more. Those eyes, each pair and infinite world within it. It has been said, "The eyes are the mirror of the soul"; I was thinking of 'Heart of glass'. Aren't we all programmed to identify ourselves in others? All observed nuances by use of our visual ability, our cognition by which we could identify sameness and similarities in others, out side of our own body. Our perception could often inspire great sense of security and belonging. Is it still Individualism or maybe on the border of collective conciseness. Saying that, I can't forget what Joseph Brodsky has said: "...The eye is the most autonomous of our organs. It is so because the objects of its attention are inevitably situated on the outside. Except in a mirror the eye never sees itself". Imagine one individual living at the end of the world, in total isolation and no people to be seen in the foreseeable future. No interaction whatsoever with the other because there is no other, what then? Would he make any art? And if he does, what kind of art would it be without any outside observation and evaluation? What would be the meaning of it for the person alone? What would it be without other people and cultural context? Art and Society without interactive overview will lead to much less than blooming and inspiring rebirth of the human mind. Our pursuit of security and happiness is complex and sometimes quite tantalizing, thus it requires perseverance and courage. The human mind has always tried to imagine and discover the unknown, no matter how unreachable it could look at first . Is it possible to imagine any discoveries or new technological possibilities without curiosity and will to go beyond the familiar boundaries?Is it possible to imagine families and newborn babies without that will and courage? Ifsuch normative and irreversible act of giving birth has survived all changes so willsociety and its art. It is after all the art of living; the art of giving that keeps humanity from dying out. It is my eyes for your eyes. Jacques Marzan, 2004 |