"Eine Geste wird belichtet – photographische Weiterführung"

gelatin silver print on baryta

"A gesture is exposed" (2011-2014) consisting of analogue films, photographs and objects
The photographic pose device was used especially in the 19th century to immobilize people for the long exposure time. In the 16mm film A gesture is exposed, part 1 the actress gradually detaches herself from the pose device while dancing. Manfredi developed his own form of notation for this film. Frame by frame of the analogue material was scanned and the individual photographs were finally notated as graphics - an abstract order of the body in space and time was created [...]
Part 2 of the series is dedicated to the corset lacing machine. [...] In the 16mm film for A gesture is exposed, part 2 the actress also moves away from the object... With the idea of visualizing movement in the photographic image space, the artist threw the 16mm film rolls onto the light-sensitive photographic paper during the exposure [...]: The spiral-shaped light choreographies contain within them the movements of the film actress, which at some points shine through. [...] Thus both notation and photogram prove to be an intervention in the space and time of photography, the images, the movements, as more or less ordered accesses and variations to the body as a place of discipline and possibility at the same time.
A gesture is exposed thus stands paradigmatically for Manfredi's artistic practice, in which her medium, photography, and her central reference object, the body, are constantly questioned anew with regard to their historical conditioning and current scope of action. (Astrid Peterle, from "still:moving", Museum der Moderne Salzburg; 2012)