‘Riot‘ (Part 1 and 2), Video performance, 4:53 mins
The video ‘Riot’ was produced after experiencing the G20 demonstrations against the financial system at the grandiose location of the bank of England in 2008 as the world economy began to collapse into recession. The demonstration seemed like a hyped up, stadium scale spectacle on a film set. Forward intelligence police teams were monitoring and recording activists who were in turn recording police, creating an endless impotent loop of documentation whilst the ominous drone of surveillance helicopters overhead provided the backing soundtrack. ‘Riot’ addresses the history and contemporary state of protest and represents the endless cycle of civil unrest that is experienced second hand through the media’s lens in a re-enforcement of diffused aggression and passivity. The idea behind the video has been developed into large scale performance riots (Chamber music for the disenfranchised & Prague Uprising) where assembled crowds are encouraged to actively participate in engaging physically with footage of riots in a contained institutional location, to a live punk soundtrack.
This video was part of Critical Contemporary Culture’s third issue on CRISIS.
Alexis was part of the Panel Discussion, ‘Considering Crisis in Critical Contemporary Culture’, which took place on Wednesday 27 November 2013 at the Department of Sociology, London School of Economics.
http://www.criticalcontemporaryculture.org/
