The action in this video takes place in a school where the artist used to teach. Children are asked questions and the video shows them as they put up their hands for permission to speak in accordance with school’s rules. Since the video has no sound, questions and answers remain unknown. The contents are desire/eagerness (raising arms) and frustration/disenchantment (lowering arms). Hanna Arendt’s book “The human condition” had a great influence on this video’s conceptual process.

The title of this work is REFLEXOS, and was chosen because of the double meaning of that word in Portuguese. On the one hand, it is a “Reflexo” as a reflex that is an involuntary and nearly instantaneous movement in response to a stimulus (like the body reflexes of the children in the video to the questions of the artist). On the other hand, it is a “Reflexo” as a reflexion or reflected image (for instance in a mirror), evoking the interpersonal relations in the classroom that this video shows. The video is projected on an suspended screen behind which appears the following text (via a slide projection on a wall behind the screen):

“REFLEXOS

In 3 different ways: from the teacher to the children, and how it reflects, in turn, on the teacher; from the children to the teacher, and how it reflects, in turn, on the children; from the chosen child towards the class and how it reflects, in turn, on the chosen child.

In the teacher-children direction, the children’s bodies spring up in reaction to the questions of the artist-teacher, a choreographic and metaphorical reflection of his doubts and worries.

In the children-teacher direction, the latter embodies the authority whose attention the children try to capture. When choosing a child that will be permitted to answer, the teacher gives the class the chance to express their individuality beyond the uniformity of the group, and the chosen child receives a reflection that somehow confirms her existence.

In the chosen child-class direction, each pupil tries to stand out from the group of pairs, and aims at receiving from the group, in return, an image of the status conferred to him by the fact that she has been chosen by the teacher, and that she is the one who gives the answer.

The reflection of the anxiety of the self shows through, beyond the children’s eagerness to answer, as well as the need to be reflected in the glance of the Other as a factor of identification of the reflected self: the world reflects me. The short-lived experience of the reflection, or its absence, makes the children drop their arms in revolt, withdrawal or frustration, but only to put their hands up again the next moment.