La Tristeza Complice

This work is a document of and about the people who were involved with the creation by Les Ballets C. de la B. of ‘La Tristeza Complice’. The medium, super 8 film, enables the makers of the tape to observe the production process from the margin. The functional and operational aims are not to inform or to document, but rather to obtain emotions and a nostalgic feeling, which is intensified by the use of black/white material. The images presented bring things to mind, the visible represents what is invisible. Dancers, musicians, choreographer, composers and playwrights, all people of different sex, nationality and opinion were working on the same project under the guidance of Alain Platel; shared melancholy. As a consequence, the theme (individuals being placed in a fragmentary multi-cultural society, and co-existence as a goal) and the actual relationships between the people who were involved could not longer be separated. In that sense the persons that are portrayed present a mirror of themselves, and also of (and for) others.