No Man Is an Island

No Man Is an Island is the earliest video made when Just was a student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. It s an impressive debut with his later trademarks in nascent form. An older man begins dancing in a public square, oblivious to the laughing gawkers who pass by. He seems to want to engage the attention of a young man sitting on a bench who begins weeping. A group of youngsters mimics and mocks the dancer. He s oblivious to them. The music is a sprightly tune that Fred Astaire might have used as he enticed Ginger Rogers into his arms. And didn t he do a lot of dancing in the streets in his movies? Nobody laughed at him. But, of course, he was only on a pretend street in a Hollywood soundstage. We know this is also a setup. Still, it s embarrassing. They re making public displays of themselves. The man, expressionless, continues to dance. The other man continues to weep. One kid starts taking the performance seriously and joins in the dance as a sort of pas de deux. Both men ignore him. And then it s over. We don t know why it began or ended. Courting ritual or celebration of self, it s unclear.