ARTICLES & CRITICS

Metáfora de un Crimen Perfecto (Metaphor for a Perfect Crime) by Rodrigo Alonso, Sin Cortes magazine, July/August 1997

Calm, a wolf discreetly stalks its prey. Ancestral enemies in the resonance of myth and fable, man and wolf procrastinate their meeting until proximity brings them face to face with their destinies as victim and victimizer. Apparently no one is there to perpetuate the memory of the event that nonetheless has taken place right under our noses.

If the world is not a perfect crime, as Baudrillard proposes, it is because tracks are always left behind. These tracks are here, image and sound, silent witnesses of an encounter in an undetermined time and space. Slow journeys accompany the persecutor in his search, precise maps-detail assist the victim toward his certain destiny. Few images are needed to breathe life into the tragedy: a moon hidden behind clouds, an errant passerby, an animal on the alert...

Inspired by The Perfect Crime by Jean Baudrillard and by the images of visual artist Eduardo Molinari, Ricardo Pons constructs his Metaphor of a Perfect Crime based on few clues and evidence. The images follow one another with a studied cadence, in spite of the actions that hurtle toward their fatal conclusion. The sound completes the image, a counterpart that alternates between incidental music, “realistic” sound and the translation of the situations and states experienced by the protagonists.

A solid working knowledge of edition –the real “criminal” of the story- and of narrative structures make Metaphor for a Perfect Crime an invitation to contemplation and poetry. The slow, paused rhythm of the images generates a growing expectation that translates into a notably dramatic density, sustained by a few pockets of action that unfold like book chapters.

The pattern is clearly narrative, though allegoric interpretation is not disregarded. Beyond the specific deed of the crime, man’s debate between nature and technology is implied, introduced through the recurring presence of an enigmatic airplane.

The bluish tone that permeates the visual presentation of the story erases pronounced contrasts, but without eliminating the textures achieved by extreme close-ups of the surfaces of the objects depicted. In the same way, the edition tends to suppress the violent juxtapositions by continuously applying the technique of successive fades to replace one image with the next.

The economy of means and wise application of effects evidence the craft that Pons commands in the electronic production of the video. The solid philosophical and literary inspiration and the influence of the visual arts –with which Pons has had a connection for several years- give the conceptual framework to this piece, that, as in all metaphors, exceeds its own audiovisual realization to project beyond into the universe with diverse, unfettered interpretations.