Hiding in the Lights [short]

There are some who are in darkness; And the others are in light; And you see the ones in brightness; Those in darkness drop from sight – went a song from Threepenny Opera. When we have a show, there is a clear line between performers showing off in the light and audience hidden in darkness. Unless it´s a show created by Katrina Daschner, who loves to mingle and confuse. Not only the title Hiding in the Lights sounds like a contradiction, but the whole film is organized around the principle of contrast. It is yet another project, in which the artist looks into the visual idioms of a burlesque. Liberated and retro; sexy and funny; glamorous and fake; feminine and queer – the burlesque aesthetics are a safe space, in which the fantasies can be played out, bodies exposed, the campiest costumes shown off and cheesy music drones out of loud speakers. It´s a perfect illusion and a perfect seduction: dialectic of showing and hiding.
Daschner shows the delicate moment of deconstructing the illusion with both style and self-distance. The expectations written on the faces are intercut with hard textures of costumes, props and architecture. White teeth look like pearls on the necklaces, skin is contrasted with sleek, black leather gloves, golden leggings correspond to the shining metal elements of the architecture. Her favorite trope is a visual synecdoche, where one texture stands in for another. Clothes and accessories mimic body textures; the tension that is created between them literally uncovers, what is hiding in the lights, but can be easily missed. What the artist shows in this very sensual journey around the stage is the optical unconscious of the burlesque.

(Ewa Szabłowska)

Übersetzung: Elke Papp


Two female performers – as ringmasters, pining lovers and autonomous artists in a personal union – live through “moments of disclosure” before an imaginary audience. With verve, wit and queer femme-ness, they unmask the performance space as a sexualized game subject to viewing conventions, contrasted through shots of the deserted Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.

(Diagonale Katalog)


Two female performers – as ringmas- ters, pining lovers and autonomous artists in a personal union – live through “moments of disclosure” before an imaginary audience. With verve, wit and queer femme-ness, they unmask the performance space as a sexualized game subject to viewing conventions, contrasted through shots of the deserted Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía.

(Sebastian Höglinger)