Pentatones in Berlin – Black Circles Distorting Reality

Perception of reality is a funny thing. One day the whole internet is upside down for an optical divergence causing people to see a dress in different colors depending on their eyes and just a day later nearly all German news are scandalising the video showing the lead singer of the East German band Pentatones getting a full circle tattooed on her face at a Berlin tattoo parlor.

The opinions in social media on the video are extremely different. Some praise the braveness of the singer, others are shocked, perplexed and so disgusted that they have to harangue insults. Experts of tattooing and of the music business claim that the video is a hoax just to promote the new tour and the recently released album. Watch the shocking video and read my opinion about it after the jump.

To be honest: the promotion actually worked on me, since I did not know this band before this video made a big splash in social media. And I am glad I know them now since I think that their music and their visual world created in their music videos is very sophisticated and unconventional for a German band. It is dark and dramatic without having the commercial touch that is usually attached to this kind of electronic pop.

Regarding the face-tattoo thing I am actually very intrigued by the whole story. Of course I think that the tatoo is not “real” in the sense that the private person who is also the singer of a band will have a permanent mark on her face. But it is real in terms of the storytelling behind the music and her artistic approach of the band’s new album. Seeing the face of the beautiful young woman altered for eternity is going under the skin of the audience watching the video. It creates a strong empathic reaction. Somehow you want to stop her, change the story of the video or just look away. We are completely out of our comfort zone and I understand why people feel angry about it. But yet again, this is what art is about. Change our perception, leading us out of our comfort zone and help us to surpass the boundaries of what seems set fix.

Artists used to change their appearance for the stage even before the concept of the stage was invented. Body alteration and modification is deeply routed in our cultural background and also in the fantasies we connect to the artist as an inhuman persona. Inspired by the mysticisms of the Inuits the band Pentatones decided to claim to follow this way of opening a portal to their soul through a circle tattoo. To let their fans follow this fantasy they created the tattoo video which suggests that it is happening for real. But yet again what is real in a world of celebrity Instagrams and social media?

We think we follow certain “famous” people through their life via Instagram, Facebook or other ways, but in reality we are following and reading the thought of the ghostwriters and ghostinstagrammers hired to do so. This is our world now and somehow we have to accept it. Therefore I am even more happy about the “fake” video of the Pentatones. It shows us not only the liability of our new reality but also the wonderful possibility we have if we allow ourselves to experiment with it. By creating the fantasy of the real tattoo on her face the singer Delhia de France  created a parallel reality we can follow if we like it, or ignore it if we don’t.

Watch the videos of their recent singles and check out their Soundcloud channel.

If you decide to see more of the Pentatones you can spontaneously check out their concert at Kater Blau next week.

Pentatones live in Berlin
October 1, 2015, Kater Blau

www.pentatones.de

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<a href="https://www.iheartberlin.de/author/cr/" target="_self">Claudio</a>

Claudio

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