LEVARE

**Film installation, 2023–ongoing**
Pepper’s Ghost illusion, film, photography and sound
*LEVARE* is a film installation in which a floating female figure appears through the early theatrical illusion of Pepper’s Ghost. Suspended in an undefined state, she seems to hover between the physical and the intangible.
The work combines film, photography, reflection and sound, with a composition for theremin, voice and breath by Sterre Konijn. While the floating figure and sound composition remain constant, the photographic background can change with each presentation, allowing the work to take on different visual forms.
The pilot version, titled *Almost There*, premiered at UNBOUND, the curated exhibition during UNSEEN 2023, and was presented by Gallery Caroline O’Breen. Since then, the work has evolved under its new title, *LEVARE*.
The film draws on historical accounts of female mystics such as Teresa de Ávila and Christina the Astonishing, who were believed to levitate or even fly. In *LEVARE*, their stories resonate in a female presence that appears and disappears, elusive and almost weightless.
For *Base Line – Music Meets Art* at Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Tara was invited by curator Caro Verbeek to create a connection between *LEVARE* and a historical theremin from the museum’s collection. Invented in 1920, the theremin is an electronic instrument played without physical contact: pitch and volume are controlled by moving the hands through the air around its two antennas.

Artist Statement

After the sudden, self-chosen death of my father’s beloved partner, my life felt quite literally turned upside down. She could no longer find a way out of the tangled web of her dark thoughts. Life had become too heavy to bear. This devastating experience led me to reflect, both personally and artistically, on escapism and weightlessness: the desire to be free from what weighs us down, alongside the feeling of being suspended in limbo.

These questions also connect to what I see around me. Many young people struggle with mental health, while facing pressure to make the ‘right’ choices and to constantly perform. Work insecurity, housing shortages and a growing sense of rootlessness add to that pressure, while access to mental health support is increasingly strained.

LEVARE grew from these personal experiences and observations. Levitation and weightlessness became a way for me to explore the desire to escape gravity, both literally and emotionally.

Crew:
Floating woman: Belle Hannah Kok
Music: Sterre Konijn
Soundmix: Mark Schilders
Technical: Diderik Evers, Christian Paulussen, Kenny Nagelkerke

Editing: Thomas Vroege
Support production design: Elsje de Bruijn
Advice optical illusion: Woedy Woet