Amsterdam, Holland, 2002.
(duration: 9 minutes)
Amsterdam, 2002
When preparing for a job interview one tells one's self to be one's self, but at the same time one tries to anticipate all the possible questions one might have to field and be the ideal candidate for the job. One does not anticipate that the interviewer will already be in possession of knowledge of some of one's embarrassing secrets which then become chips in a game of power.
In this film the artist plays two roles, first that of a male interviewer with a perverse bent for manipulation and domination, and second that of the interviewee, a woman who tries to the best of her ability to maintain her dignity in this destabilising situation.
The ultimate perversity of this exchange is that there is no end game to the manipulative strategy of the interviewer, other than perhaps to triumph over a personal insecurity and beat a competitor. The territory at stake here is not the office hierarchy but a more intimate realm where they have both existed fugitively, through affairs which cannot exist in the daylight.
produced by the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten.