Ep.6 Reality Sandwich: Performativity meets Realness

Title: Ep.6 Reality Sandwich: Performativity meets Realness
Runtime: 13:42
Director: Ho Bin Kim
Starring: Exactitudes (Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek) 

Synopsis:

Reality Sandwich is an ongoing, place-responsive, subaltern video series that unfolds through performative encounters with artists across diverse geographies. Inspired by absurdist gestures and relational practices, each episode begins with a single question—“What does a Reality Sandwich mean to you?”—and evolves through unscripted, daylong collaborations with local practitioners. Filmed in cities such as New York, Gwangju, Shanghai, Bacolod, Seoul, Rotterdam, Jogja, Kawasaki, and Riyadh the series resists conventional documentary structure, favoring instead a poetics of slowness, improvisation, and affective entanglement.

For the sixth episode of Reality Sandwich, we follow Exactitudes—a photographic duo founded in 1994 by Dutch photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek. Their work meticulously captures social conformity, assembling twelve square portraits on an A4 grid, each featuring individuals from the same social group posed identically to emphasize their shared dress codes.

As they embark on a new campaign, Exactitudes contemplates what Reality Sandwich means to them. The episode begins in their office, then moves to an off-site location via train, where they and their assistants scout a nearby mall for people who fit the aesthetic of their latest series. While Ari and Ellie stay behind to prepare for a pre-arranged shoot, their assistants successfully find one candidate for the ongoing project.

During lunch at the off-site set, they invite Muhammad, an 18-year-old Syrian boy, to participate in the Lacoste Training Suit series. Ho Bin quickly bonds with him, adding a personal layer to the day’s interactions.

After lunch, Ari and Ellie join their assistants at the mall, effortlessly identifying candidates for their campaign while discussing their philosophy on approaching strangers and documenting subcultures.

Back at the off-site set, they resume shooting with both pre-arranged and newly discovered participants. Amid the organized chaos, Ari takes a moment to rest. When asked what Reality Sandwich means to him, he responds: "Performativity meets realness."

The film ends.