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La Ribot: Panoramix, 17. 8. 2017, Sophiensæle, Berlin (im Rahmen von Tanz im August)

Socks, a pot, a snorkel, a blue wig, a helmet, a drawing book, two chairs, a radio, a microphone, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, various clothes: a green fluffy dress, shoes, a short dress with pattern – covered with the head of Boticelli’s Venus, a gray jumper…

Naked and by using the clothes and the props hung on the walls or scattered on the floor, La Ribot generated installations, Fluxus sculptures, short theater pieces, choreographies, videos, poetry readings – Lois Keidan calls this interdisciplinarity Live Art in the catalog of the Retrospective at Tanz im August Berlin. Three hour long Distinguished Pieces (No 1-34) (1993-2000) that were sold to „Distinguished Proprietors“ as art works (a frolic act in the art market) consists of short solos (30 seconds to 7 minutes) – putting on different personas, dealing with sex work, rape, nomadism, not having anything to say and multitasking, inviting us to a moment of contemplation, to a moment of meditation, dragging the audience in the privacy of a naked blonde woman sleeping under white sheets or sprawling the legs and lying where everything around is red, practicing ballet with hands, drawing on herself with Yves Klein blue to the rhythm of the music and her movements.

On the contrary to the other absurd and funny pieces, that usually elicited smile and laughers, a sign (for sale) and folding wooden chair hung on La Ribot’s body hauled us to a short pause blended with sadness: the repetitive opening and closing of the chair slowly becoming more and more violent recalls, well, sex work and its brutality with a simple but effective language.

Despite a few overly dramatic pieces – such as the closure performance (slowly blood leaks down the body of a woman with a white dress) or like a video in which the artist covers herself with garlic, oil and tomato as if her flesh is being prepared to be eaten – the aura and dedication of the choreographer made the audience follow every step with utmost dedication.