Sinnesentzug (1976)

Video recording, b/w, 60 minutes, photo and Polaroid documentation.

I live 72 hours in a room without hearing or seeing, 48 hours without talking and 24 hours in a straitjacket.

This video forms a documentation of an experiment during which Holtappels stays in a room for consequently three days, progressively deprived from basic senses. The first day he is not able to hear and see, the next day he is not able to hear, see and speak and the last day he is not able to hear, see and speak and also wears a straitjacket. The registration follows Holtappels in his physical experience of the situation; we can see the way he is moving, how he is trying to find his way in the room, writing on a note book, sitting on a chair, eating and sleeping, being fed and put to bed. The use of their own body as a means of observation, perception and self realisation of certain events and situations is central to the work of Boegel and Holtappels from this period, as they are trying to investigate and envisage the forces behind the physical and emotional expressions of human feelings and ways of behaviour.