Don't Look Now!

[2008] Video installation. Big black box with a projection inside. 4min 30sec. Looped. 180 x 220 x 240 cm.

It seems that the appetite for pictures showing bodies in pain is as keen, almost, as the desire for ones that show bodies naked.

—Susan Sontag, in Regarding the Pain of Others

Don't Look Now is a video installation that aims to create the opposite of an amusement park: by looking into a hole, the viewer can see him/herself taking part in horrible scenes, from executions in the old times to Abu Ghraib, Vietnam, scenes from violent blockbuster movies, etc.

This work results from my reflection on how news events and fiction are perceived. Is there any difference between watching real war or a violent film? Is not watching horrible things a form of voyeurism? Don't Look Now offers a sort of sadomasochistic-voyeuristic experience.

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Installation views at the Museu dos Direitos Humanos do Mercosul (2014, Porto Alegre, Brazil) and Valand Spring Exhibition (2008, Gothenburg, Sweden — the four last pictures, with people, by Danai Vlachou):