Bardo Gap

Description:

The Bardo Gap is a single-channel video work by Margaret Dragu that investigates death in its multiple registers: physical mortality, the collapse of primary industries, la petite mort, and the Buddhist concept of the bardo, the interval of suspension between death and rebirth. 

The work combines scripted sequences, found footage, and documentation of a live performance at the Grand Luxe Hall. Appearing as her alter ego, Madge Lee, alongside performer Gerardo Avila, Dragu’s performance involved dance, narration, live music, and pre-recorded video filmed from a bird’s-eye perspective. In these video segments, friends and doctors address Madge as though she were lying in a hospital bed, offering updates and observations from the outside world. These roles are performed by DB Boyko, Hank Bull, Peter Courtemanche, Bobbi Kozinuk, Robert Kyr, Aretha Munro, Genevieve Palmer, Daniel Scheidt, and Zainub Verjee.

Moving fluidly between personal and socio-economic reflection, The Bardo Gap interweaves this performance footage with material shot in Finn Slough, a historic fishing village where Dragu previously lived, linking autobiographical geography to broader meditations on loss and transformation.

Produced in collaboration with Bobbi Kozinuk. 

Video documentation is available upon request.