Riot Act SE6
Stills from Riot Act SE6' Part 1 Duration 3:55 mins 2012 (Performed in Catford Blockbusters)
A collaboration between Alexis Milne and Tom Bresolin
Riot Act SE6 presents a series of renacted events from the 2011 London Riots focusing on the major role CCTV played in convicting those involved. For a few days, a blurred sense of freedom prevailed with rioters openly looting shops without covering their faces, only to be played back to the authorities from banks of CCTV footage. The performance/video focuses on the acting out of violence through mimetic gestures, and highlights the contained aggression rendered impotent within the looped playback.
The first performance was filmed in a disused Blockbuster video store in Catford, left abandoned after being vandalized in the riots. Original CCTV footage of looting was projected onto an assembled set, creating an obstacle course for the performers to interact with as they responded to the onscreen violence.
BUNKER RIOT clip from rage bank on Vimeo.
The Catford footage was then reprojected within the next performance in a Dalston Bunker, creating a hallucinatory looped environment to the muffled soundtrack of Perfect Day by Lou Reed- alluding to a media qoute of a rioter who described the experience as 'dreamlike and the best day of my life forever.'Riot act was performed as part of the Bunker Mentality video art exhibition curated by Alexis Milne
