Ecce Ötzi (2020)
A group of seven aspiring actors audition for a role in a fictional play. In a cut-up of scripted dialogue, they take the roles of two members of a Dutch Carnival association that made a paper-maché head. This head depicts the corpse of Ötzi the Ice Man, Europe's oldest known natural mummy. When Carnival is cancelled, they have to decide upon the fate of the distorted effigy. Questions around the futility and folklore of Carnival merge with question about the ethics of the reproduction and display of the corpse.
Van Gelder dislocates the Ice Man from an environment of scientific objectivity, historical religiosity and consumerism to reconsider the artefact’s epistemological conditions and ambiguous ontological status. Ötzi becomes a medium to unearth frictions between compounds of reality and fiction, representation and misrepresentation, in a game of encounter and failed adaptation.
DOP: Daniel Donato
Score: Fabian Tombers
Acting coaches: Ron Bons, Jordy Kadmayer
First assistant: Heleen Mineur
Starring: Ties van Rijswijk, Roos Cornelissen, Nisse Groos, Mila Vermaat, Fenna Bandell, Avalon Plomp and Mila Hermsen
(video—33 min.)
Ecce Ötzi (2020)
A group of seven aspiring actors audition for a role in a fictional play. In a cut-up of scripted dialogue, they take the roles of two members of a Dutch Carnival association that made a paper-maché head. This head depicts the corpse of Ötzi the Ice Man, Europe's oldest known natural mummy. When Carnival is cancelled, they have to decide upon the fate of the distorted effigy. Questions around the futility and folklore of Carnival merge with question about the ethics of the reproduction and display of the corpse.
Van Gelder dislocates the Ice Man from an environment of scientific objectivity, historical religiosity and consumerism to reconsider the artefact’s epistemological conditions and ambiguous ontological status. Ötzi becomes a medium to unearth frictions between compounds of reality and fiction, representation and misrepresentation, in a game of encounter and failed adaptation.
DOP: Daniel Donato
Score: Fabian Tombers
Acting coaches: Ron Bons, Jordy Kadmayer
First assistant: Heleen Mineur
Starring: Ties van Rijswijk, Roos Cornelissen, Nisse Groos, Mila Vermaat, Fenna Bandell, Avalon Plomp and Mila Hermsen
(video—33 min.)
