Death of the week

Using cardboard scale models, self-made scenery and live animated puppet videos, Hotel Modern onze again tells a great and important story about the fragility of humankind. A surrealist fantasy about an erotically charged meeting between a woman and a unicorn juxtaposes an authentic wartime account of going into hiding, recanted by the elderly father of one of the actresses. The cruel absurdity of death – shockingly illustrated with stiff, liveless puppets – reappears in a number of guises and culminates in an overwhelming model version of the Twin Towers catastrophe. The swinging, exploding planes in Johan Gimonprez’ video D.I.A.L. History now have some competition. Destruction triumphs here. One does not know whether to cry for so many wasted lives or applaud such an abundance of imaginative theatrical power.

25-9-2004