Artworks
Sweet dreams are made of this
video
Date
2016
Technique
Video, colour, sound, 4'21"
Dimensions
Dimensões variáveis
This video work from 2016 - Sweet dreams are made of this was r
ecorded in the ballroom of the Museo Cerralbo in Madrid, welcoming us into a masterful Rococo style setting, accompanied by an unlikely version of the song that gives it its title. In the middle of this famous room are two policemen dressed in the uniform of Spain's intervention corps, who slowly embrace to dance the tango. Seen as a dance for two, sensual and engaging, all the details of the steps and touches between the policemen are magnified, given the rough attire and the issue of violence associated with such characters.
In a growing tension between the dancers, in intense exchanges of glances, the lightness of the dance and the unusual nature of the scene gradually gains meaning with the lyrics of the famous song by the British band Eurhythmics: "some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused". The video follows the tango through different perspectives of the room, expanded by the mirrors that decorate it and, gracefully, at the end, we are taken to the starting point.
The pertinence and clarity of this piece by Carlos Aires, with its fine camera work and fantastic musical interpretation, provides a clear comment on the use of police force in Spain. Anti-austerity demonstrations, particularly in Madrid, have resulted in several cases of police violence, which has led to a decree-law banning the visual recording of police officers or their uniforms without government authorisation. This project thus gains a quasi-illegal dimension, enhanced by the suggestion of a certain romance between these two men in a secretive environment. Although the tango is associated with a passionate dance between man and woman, in its origins in harbour brothels at the end of the 19th century, the tango was mainly a dance between two men.
ecorded in the ballroom of the Museo Cerralbo in Madrid, welcoming us into a masterful Rococo style setting, accompanied by an unlikely version of the song that gives it its title. In the middle of this famous room are two policemen dressed in the uniform of Spain's intervention corps, who slowly embrace to dance the tango. Seen as a dance for two, sensual and engaging, all the details of the steps and touches between the policemen are magnified, given the rough attire and the issue of violence associated with such characters.
In a growing tension between the dancers, in intense exchanges of glances, the lightness of the dance and the unusual nature of the scene gradually gains meaning with the lyrics of the famous song by the British band Eurhythmics: "some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused". The video follows the tango through different perspectives of the room, expanded by the mirrors that decorate it and, gracefully, at the end, we are taken to the starting point.
The pertinence and clarity of this piece by Carlos Aires, with its fine camera work and fantastic musical interpretation, provides a clear comment on the use of police force in Spain. Anti-austerity demonstrations, particularly in Madrid, have resulted in several cases of police violence, which has led to a decree-law banning the visual recording of police officers or their uniforms without government authorisation. This project thus gains a quasi-illegal dimension, enhanced by the suggestion of a certain romance between these two men in a secretive environment. Although the tango is associated with a passionate dance between man and woman, in its origins in harbour brothels at the end of the 19th century, the tango was mainly a dance between two men.