Physical and mental exploration have been founding elements in Joachim Koester's research for several years. While exploration was mainly a matter of geography during the 19th century, the 20th century brought the mental exploration of our unconscious, triggered by the discovery of psychoanalysis.
The artist is interested in documenting minor events, forgotten by History, in order to reintroduce them into collective memory. Using 16mm documentary films, photographic series or books, his work transforms stories into images and vice versa, appearing as a quest for the invisible and the vanishing.
With "Tarantism", Joachim Koester explores a new way to tell a story, while testing the limits of what can be seen, represented, told or known, as he does in the rest of his work.
Joanchim Koester was born in 1962 in Denmark.
He lives and works in New York.
Tarantism - Joachim Koester - 2007
16mm film, black and white, mute, 9'17 (still)
« Tarantism » is the name of disease which appeared in southern Italy, resulting from the bite of a spider called « Tarantula ». This bite caused various symptoms, such as nausea, difficulty to speak, delusion, excitability and agitation. The victims suffered then from convulsions and the only way to heal them was to engage in a frenzied dance, as it was believed. Called « Tarantella », this dance, appeared during the Middle Ages and was danced all along the 19th century.
To make this video, the artist asked a group of dancers to perform this uncontrolled dance in order to explore this borderline mental and physical state, close to a trance.
« Tarantism » represents a transition in the artist's work, who brings a story back to life simply through the movement of these completely disarticulate bodies, without referring to images extracted from reality, thus exploring a purely mental territory.
Tarantism - Joachim Koester - 2007
16mm film, black and white, mute, 9'17 (still)
« Tarantism » is the name of disease which appeared in southern Italy, resulting from the bite of a spider called « Tarantula ». This bite caused various symptoms, such as nausea, difficulty to speak, delusion, excitability and agitation. The victims suffered then from convulsions and the only way to heal them was to engage in a frenzied dance, as it was believed. Called « Tarantella », this dance, appeared during the Middle Ages and was danced all along the 19th century.
To make this video, the artist asked a group of dancers to perform this uncontrolled dance in order to explore this borderline mental and physical state, close to a trance.
« Tarantism » represents a transition in the artist's work, who brings a story back to life simply through the movement of these completely disarticulate bodies, without referring to images extracted from reality, thus exploring a purely mental territory.
Tarantism - Joachim Koester - 2007
16mm film, black and white, mute, 9'17 (still)
« Tarantism » is the name of disease which appeared in southern Italy, resulting from the bite of a spider called « Tarantula ». This bite caused various symptoms, such as nausea, difficulty to speak, delusion, excitability and agitation. The victims suffered then from convulsions and the only way to heal them was to engage in a frenzied dance, as it was believed. Called « Tarantella », this dance, appeared during the Middle Ages and was danced all along the 19th century.
To make this video, the artist asked a group of dancers to perform this uncontrolled dance in order to explore this borderline mental and physical state, close to a trance.
« Tarantism » represents a transition in the artist's work, who brings a story back to life simply through the movement of these completely disarticulate bodies, without referring to images extracted from reality, thus exploring a purely mental territory.
