KAaD: Position to what?
[He starts moving the jar again and continues to push the earthernware jar with its pencils in the same direction - across the coffee table.]
Motiv # 11, 1998
Anja Franke
In 24 Motiver:et Manuskript (24 Motifs : A Manuscript), of which only Motiv #11 is reproduced in n.paradoxa, Anja Franke writes a dialogue with her alter ego. Franke splits herself into a feminine (Anja Franke - AF) and a masculine (Kaj Aage Drafenharden - KAaD) part. In each motif, the feminine and the masculine parts interact dialectical, and in this way, they reveal more and more people, each with different identities (P#3, P#4, P#5 etc.). The dialogues contained in 24 Motiver: et Manuskript are all small stories from daily life. The stories are written out in three different texts. The first text is about the environment, exploring whether it is set inside or outside, the setup lighting, the time and where the bodies are placed. The second text is the actual spoken dialogue between the different people in the stories. And the last text explains the thoughts of the subjects and what kind of position and movement the subjects are doing with their bodies as they speak. 24 Motiver; et Manuskript is in the process of being produced as 24 short videoplays.
Anja Franke (b.1962) is a visual artist living in Copenhagen,Denmark.
KAaD:
How did it go?
[He is sitting comfortable in a big sofa with his legs crossed and
stretched on top of a coffee table in front of the sofa.]
AF:
I am not sure yet ...
[She is standing on the floor close to a stereo system.]
KAaD:
But you must have sensed something?
[A tall earthernware jar with pencils is standing on the coffee table.]
AF:
Sensed ... It is not a thing that you sense, it's pure practice and
routine.
[Her finger slides smoothly and slowly over the edge of the black
stereo.]
KAaD:
Yes, but anyway ...
[He is starting to touch the earthernware jar with one of his feet on the
coffee table.]
AF:
Anyway?
[Her finger is about to reach the end of the edge of the stereo.]
KAaD:
Did you see something?
[His foot pushes carefully the earthernware jar - holding the pencils -
across the coffee table.]
AF:
Yes, I saw him of course ...
[The stereo is bought during the sales in Fona. Probably it is a SONY.
Before she purchased it, she had spent a lot of time on choosing a brand
because the price of the stereos were almost the same. It is all in one,
CD recorder; tape recorder and radio.]
KAaD:
Once he had problem with his pancreas, you know, the metabolism process.
[With his foot he is carefully pushing the earthernware jar acrose the
surface of the coffee table.]
AF:
Anyway, you must know him very well ?
[Her finger slides over the edge of the stereo and she passes her finger
over her eyes. She is standing watching the accumulation of the fine and
grey dust on her fingertip]
KAaD:
But don't you think, that being together with him is pleasant?
[He is still pushing the earthernware jar in the same direction across
the surface of the coffee table.]
AF:
He is not exactly my taste.
[She is blowing her finger tip and all the dust is moving around in the
air]
KAaD:
TASTE!!! What do you mean?
[Suddenly he stops moving his foot and the earthernware jar stands still]
AF:
I just notice that he constantly changes his position in relation to what
he claims.
[She turns around her finger when she blows it and finally she wipes her
finger in the blouse.]
KAaD:
Position to what?
[He starts moving the jar again and continues to push the earthernware
jar with its pencils in the same direction - across the coffee table.]
AF:
That he contradicts himself constantly, like a lizard can change its
colour ...
[She bends down in front of the stereo and looks into the transparent
door of the tape recorder]
KAaD:
... but I think it is his method.
[He is now sitting with his leg totally outstretched - across the surface
off the coffee table - in a strange position. He can almost not reach the
earthernware jar]
AF:
But not a considered method.
[She presses a small bottom next to the tape recorder and the door to the
inner room begin automatically to open at a very relaxed and slow speed.]
KAaD:
But we all have the right to be a human beings.
[He is now trying to get his foot on the other side of the earthernware
jar]
AF:
Human and method?
[!]
KAaD:
Yes, human, you know how to control and not control...feelings!
[!]
AF:
Have you known him for a long time?
[For a moment, she watches the now totally inner room of the tape
recorder]
KAaD:
A long time...well I bumped into him a while ago.
[He has finally got his foot on in an awkward position across the coffee
table.]
AF:
Humm...How?
[With her finger she carefully wipes off the inner side of the door of
the tape recorder.]
KAaD:
It was a coincidence ... I was looking at a frenchcoffeemaker, you know,
one in glass, such a thing I have desired for long time.
[He is slowly pushing the earthern ware jar with pencils back again -
across the surface of the coffee table, trying to raise his body - while
the movement with his foot keeps going, he happens to push the earthern
ware jar violently. All the pencils are dispersed on the coffee table and
roll across its surface and down on the floor - in all directions]
AF:
But I think that he changes constantly...
[She raises her finger to her eyes to see if any dust has
accumulated.]
Copyright © : Anja Franke, 1998
N.Paradoxa : Issue No. 8, 1998
