Portrait in an Anthill is an installation that follows in the footsteps of Bleu provisoire, a performance/manifesto on immobility. For five hours, the performer lies motionless in a 2 m. x 1 m. x 0.5 m. glass cage that he shares with an anthill. On all sides, headphones broadcast three distinct sound sources. There are also flat screens, with close-up images of the artist’s body and the ants, shot live by four cameras. A device relays the pictures automatically.

Research on immobility is based on the idea that all apparent immobility harbours countless movements–the flow of life, the circulation of vital fluids, the beating heart. The pinnacle of immobility, however, lies in death. Dancer and performer Yann Marussich questions this idea, or rather the way we approach it. It is no longer a choreographed work but rather an art installation where performance is considered in terms of duration. Here again, it is movement that the artist focuses on. Death might be nothing more than a passage from one state to another, a fraction of a second that leads to decomposition.

Portrait in an Anthill experiments with this meeting point for plant, animal and human life. In a seemingly empty space, ants swarm over this motionless body: a reminder that insects actively participate in the decomposition process. Marussich experiments with this end of life process from an organic perspective, challenging it physically and emotionally. The point is to let go and to reach a state of complete surrender. The experiment also canvasses the audience to reflect on its own relationship with death and dying–almost experiencing it themselves. The idea of death itself creates an intimate bond between audience and performer.


Text: Anne Rochat
English translation: AJS Craker