Madeleine – 狂乱 “Kyôran” (2015)

In traditional Japanese Kabuki theatre 狂乱 (“Kyôran”) is a kind of dance expressing madness, the dancer is expressing a character that is frantically searching for somebody (a lover, a lost child) in a dazed state.

“Madeleine” is a middle-aged woman living in a closed mental institution. She has experienced traumatic loss; despite the nurses’ efforts she is taking her clothes off at any given chance, stating she wants to be “pretty”. Each time when a visitor comes she hopes to be reunited with her lover, standing for hours behind the closed door in her underwear, waiving, waiting that the door opens in vain and he comes to pick her up.

[* First Prize in the juried international photographic competition themed “Interaction”, hosted by Unlimited Grain Gallery Nieuwerkerk aan den Ijssel, NL, in March 2015.]