Gallery: Video Art: Éléonore Saintagnan, <i>Chute Magyare</i> | clivejames.com
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Éléonore Saintagnan : Chute Magyare

Video, DV, 3 min.
2002
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In this short piece, a professional sports commentator reads out a letter recounting the trials and tribulations of a horse-riding holiday-adventure in Hungary. For fear of being knocked off her horse by a branch, the author of the letter jumps off the horse as it is rushing, out of control, straight into a forest. Fear of death is dispelled by mental calculus — a sure proof she is alive and thinking straight after rolling over herself several times. She is rescued, in slow motion (“as in Gone With the Wind”), by a Hungarian friend. In the end, the family she is staying with gives her a medal for gymnastics, dated 1863.

Note to viewers: the black screen is intentional. The video should be viewed in QuickTime.

[ Archive Editor's note, December 2020: This video is no longer available from the original source. ]