The very first ever film, Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, captured three seconds of a horse and its jockey in motion. It was made to prove that during a gallop, a horse—just for a moment, a very brief moment—lifts all four hooves off the ground. So it involves an instant of suspension: six hundred kilos of warm, fragrant life, hanging in the air.
The first film wasn’t meant to be art; it was a tool for research. It dissected a gallop, capturing it in 24 frames, each taken with a separate camera. It was also the first stop-motion film and the first ever loop. The images were arranged on a round glass disc. The last frame seamlessly connected back to the first. As long as the disc would spin, Sallie and her jockey galloped endlessly toward the horizon and beyond.
Sometimes, films get alternative edits: remastered versions or director’s cuts. For Sallie, one could argue for a new version—one where the suspended moment is repeated 24 times on the disc. That way, Sallie and her jockey would float on, tirelessly.
Salomé Mooij and Geert Belpaeme dissect—live, on stage—the nature of the stumble. On April 17, they’ll perform in the outdoors at KAAP in Bruges. On April 30, they’ll stumble during HOPLA.