“In this case, the location, only just hinted at, is a gym. The duel is between two foil fencers who are faceless, ageless and sexless (a tapered and fine hand does appear, however, caressing the hilt with inadvertent sensuality). Masks, objects therefore – the masked figures are attired in their outfits like metaphysical mannequins – are portrayed with stylized gestures in the careful sequence; if it were theatre it would be very oriental, like Kabuki or Balinese dance expressing a text which is not mimetic nor naturalistic but symbolic …. Dynamic actions are also avoided because the other aspect carefully eluded by the author is the sports photograph ….. The action is posing in these images. It’s in a pause provoked by the attention oriented exclusively to the form, to the condensation of the here and now that in our perception initiates the duration of the pause ….”
(Paolo Barbaro, 2005)
