Hypo Glossal
2019
HD video, stereo sound, 03´56´´ loop.
Installation views, KHM2, Malmö, 2019.
In ancient Greek ‘Hypo’ means under, and ‘glossal’ means tongue. In the sensory video Hypo Glossal, we see a young man struggling with a shadowy figure in an empty room. The two are wrapped in darkness that periodically swallows the mans opponent, who is abstracted an moves between varying degrees of opacity and transparency. Like the negative of the analogue film, this temporary disappearance encourages a reversed seeing. The hand-to-hand combat oscillates between strong holds and soft movements, the subtle slow choreography containing both intimacy and violence in equal measure.
In her work with the video, Otto has taken an interest in the concept o ‘parterre’, a term that emerged in French theatre during the seventeenth century and refers to the arrangement of the audience on the floor, in front of the stage. But it is also used to denote a manoeuvre in wrestling. It’s about power and positioning. The two bodies are continuall falling into what is known in marshal arts as a ‘clinch’, a locking hold that interrupts the action before a new effort is made.
Text: Asrin Haidari
’In the city grows a field´ – Malmö Konsthall, 2022.
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