Vincent Moon | barriers and rules are broken down
There is an exciting buzz in the air as I approach the Psychedelic Cinema. I am on my way to see a Live Cinema Performance by Vincent Moon.
I descend the staircase to the cinema space.
I had been here earlier in the day to watch a series of excerpts from the French 1964 documentary The Hallucinogenic Mushrooms of Mexico. The room was what you would expect of a university lecture theatre. Benched seats, long desktops for note making and laptops and a screen at the front of the room.
Now the space is different.
Hullo. My name is Lee
Hullo...
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As I take my first step into the cinema my nostrils are filled with the smell of burning incense. Palo Santo. A smell I associate with cleansing and ritual. The room is darker, lit only by the dim flickering glow of artificial candlelight.
I make my way to my seat, vague memories of church pews are triggered in my mind as I shuffle down the narrow bench. I know I am in the same cinema space as earlier that day, but my senses are transporting me to other places.
As I settle in my seat I hear a repetitive humming sound. On the screen the street lights of a road tunnel glide down the screen, echoing the yellow road markings in David Lynch’s Lost Highway. The imagery is hypnotic and suggests the journey we are all about to take. The cinema is full and Vincent Moon stands behind a mixing desk amongst the audience.
He is with us.
The audience slip into silence as the Lynchian lights fade to black. We are now on a train looking through the window at a serene sunrise over a river valley.
Our journey has begun.
A collage of memories and experiences begin to flood the screen spanning different times and cultures from across the globe. Vincent’s camera dances amongst the humans he is sharing the experiences with. They do not notice the lens, he has merged with the ritual. He is not a spectator, neither are we.
We are all absorbed.
Moments emerge from and then dissolve back into this visual soup. We are tapping into the collective consciousness.
The edges are invisible.
The images are accompanied by sounds of chanting, strong ceremonial drum beats, techno and guttural cries that effortlessly develop and change. The sound system is powerful and the sound waves vibrate the bodies of the audience who are becoming hypnotised by Vincent’s magic.
The structure of time and space begin to crumble as layers of footage and recordings are mixed together spontaneously. Vincent acts as a conduit. He is as surprised and mesmerized as we are as he pulls these sights and sounds from his memories, treating each with the greatest respect. His body moves with the image and he occasionally lets out a cry as though possessed, his red head torch glowing in the darkness like his third eye is on fire.
He has captured humanity and all of its magic and he is transmitting it to his devoted congregation who are being guided into a hypnotic trance state. Vincent is the medium and the footage and field recordings are the spirits.
‘I celebrate people and bring them together in this space. Recall them, bring them back on the dance floor’. v.)
The experience reaches a climax and then begins to return. We are lead back to where our trip began, on the train looking down the river valley as the sun rises. For the first time since entering the cinema, I start to become aware of my surroundings, the sound of my breath, the people sat around me.
We are all transformed.
This happening will never exist again. It is transient. As an audience we embarked on our own journeys but, also experienced the human tradition of a collective experience. From the chaos of improvisation came synchronicities and coincidences.
We are connected.
Like taking holy communion, I feel we have absorbed some of the essence of the ritual, culture and experience of the people from the footage. We will carry this within us long after the experience itself has ended as the shared memories and experiences dissolve into our being.
It leaves traces.
This is Ritual Cinema, where barriers and rules are broken down. The viewer becomes the traveller and Moon the guide.
‘This is not an intellectual process. It doesn’t go through the brain it is a collective consciousness… The journey is more interesting if you can let go of the cerebral cortex.’’. v.)
What a trip.
To find out more about Vincent Moon and to view his work visit:
Vincent Moon | web & www.petitesplanetes.earth | Instagram | Youtube
Vincent Moon – Live Cinema Experience was part of Breaking Convention at the University of Exeter
Some of the film, sounds and images used during the Live Cinema Performance where created in collaboration with Priscilla Telmon.
Top image: Vincent Moon. Photographic portrait credit: Sol Janik
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