Cecum
2022
07:53 min
360° video, color, ambisonic sound

Cecum places the viewer in a constant vertical ascension through a sequence of fantastical dream-like CGI 3D animated events and interstitial spaces. Rising from an underground backstage dressing room, the viewer passes through a theater hosting a genderless circus show, a cylindrical hall full of sculptural architectural segments, and an abandoned, outdoor swimming pool with a single occupant. Through the surrealistic correlations and distortions created by the internal choreography of the virtual objects and bodies, Cecum resonates with questions about theatrical rituals and the unconscious mind. 

Deeply inspired by contemporary dance and structured by musical elements such as repetition, rhythm, and frequency, the work displays an unconventional narrative array, in which the happenings and non-events are weighed equally. The continuous ascension abnormally penetrates the shell-like virtual mesh, lingers and reveals its immaterial flesh, and allows for a meditative observation as if the viewer were suspended within a perpetual clear elevator – seeing all but never being seen. The transforming foreign hierarchy of simultaneous occurrences gradually exposes the viewer to the various figures and occurrences in the work, who remain oblivious to each other, similar to the cinematic knowledge gaps or the parallel discourses on the eternal internet feed.

Cecum was exhibited as part of the joint installation "Saddle Point" with artist Itamar Stamler at HaMidrasha Gallery in Tel Aviv between February - March 2022.

Saddle Point consists of an inflatable and elevated sculptural environment – a stage, an experimental facility or a playground –out of which protrude two special seats for watching two VR pieces, one by each of the artists. The works create two parallel layers of experience, two experiences of journey (one vertical and one horizontal), in which the viewer’s body and the physical dimension assume meaning and challenge the virtual experience.

Installation View:

Installation photos credit: Carmit Hassine

Installation documentation videography: Sigal Zegman