Below is a selection of film- and video works created within the last decade.
For more info, or to watch the films in full, follow the links in the description or go to https://vimeo.com/rikkebenborg
FEBER was commissioned by H.C. Andersens Hus and showcased at the annual H.C. Andersen festival in Odense in 2021. Originally created as a large 3 channel installation, it has later been shown on a smaller scale at both Kunsthal 6100 in Haderslev and at Galleri Marie Kirkegaard in Copenhagen.
TODAY THE CHURCHBELLS STARTED CHIMING - 2019
Combining footage from Jutland in Denmark, with footage from Cairo in Egypt, along with a voiceover in Arabic, the film explores the notion of female connectivity in terms of sisterhood, motherhood and womanhood - in spite of cultural differences or geographical distances.
HYSTERICS - 2017
HYSTERICS is based on extensive research on the condition Hysteria - the now extinct diagnosis originally associated with the female body - focusing particularly on the Parisian Asylum Salpetrière, run by Jean Martin Charcot. Together with the amazing dance collective FANCLUB, dancer Mejse Vedel and Sound artist Lærke Sødring, we explored the many bodily manifestations of female hysteria.
BROKEN - 2016/2017
BROKEN was filmed during my residency in NYC at ISCP in 2016. Through the lens of the cameras we follow two people dressed in broken clothes, with metallic eyes and teeth, passing through different places in the city. The male protagonist appears lifeless or paralysed while the female protagonist drags him along. I wanted to create a narrative that reversed the classical gender roles showing the male as active and the female as passive or doll like. With their special characteristics, my aim was to create a sense of otherness and alienation, leaving the recipient confused about the identity of the two people inhabiting the film. Where are they from, are they in fact from this planet or from a different galaxy - or from a different time detached from ours. Through a voiceover spoken by the female protagonist that runs throughout the entire film, I reflect upon everything thats broken in this world.
I BRING SLEEP - 2015
I BRING SLEEP explores the similarities between death, sleep and intoxication - and the likeness of the sculptural pose and that of the dead. Filmed on 8 mm film, the work is a fabulation about Greek/Roman mythology particularly the myth of Argus Penoptes with his 100 eyes - combined with Morpheus, God of dreams, who lived in a cage filled with intoxicating opium poppies.
ANTHROPOSE/POISED/PARALLEL - 2012/2016
The film is inspired by Russian constructivist theatre, where props and scenography functioned as facilitators for both the movements of the actors as well as the actual story and its progression. Featuring a female dancer, dressed in a geo-metric skirt and surrounded by a scenography that contours and mirrors her body and costume, the film playfully adresses the science of anthropometry all while the mechanical movements create the feeling that she is nothing but a music box ballerina who starts dancing when the lid is opened, thus touching upon a stereotypical view of the passive female without a will of her own.
MASQUERADE
Through stopmotion and paper cuts MASQUERADE is playful exploration of identity and gender, a self-contained animation where the combination of the same images creates new expressions: turning the images around, the eyebrows become a moustache, the combed back hair becomes a beard etc. I was fascinated both with the classical freakshow/carnival and the idea of the boudour and the intimate private moment in front of the mirror.
M64 is visual narrative evolving through the dramaturgy of form, rhythm. geometry and the body - while reflecting my love for the Avantgarde
TRACES
one of two animations where facial stop motion drawings become a tool for exploring both a physical understanding of 3dimensionality in relation to the human body, as well as a play with mapping and measuring.