FAQ
Casting: James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause), DVD, colour, sound, 32’ 50’’
Cabello/Carceller. Casting: James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause), DVD, colour, sound, 32’ 50’’, 2004.
Description:
Cinema could be considered one of the most important “schools of behavior” in our culture, operating simultaneously as screen and mirror. "Casting: James Dean" focuses on some stereotypes that work in the construction of dominant masculinity through the cinema, and it tries to reveal some of the mechanisms that function in this process. It is also an exploration about the possibility of masculinity as a construction outside the male body. James Dean has been one of the most imitated stereotypes of “masculine performance.” In this video, and after a public open call, more than 20 women of different ages and backgrounds accepted to represent him in a scene from the film "Rebel Without a Cause." The video portrays 16 of these women playing the actor, and re-enacting masculine behavior from their perspectives and personal readings, therefore perverting a traditional casting into an experiment where gender exchange is the main character, and “actresses” construct a somehow forbidden identity.
Medium:
Video
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum