We commissioned six new works dealing with different forms of narration and storytelling in video art. An unforeseen timespace journey from ancient Rome to Manila.
When Diogenes of Sinope, the 4th century BCE philosopher, was asked why he begged for alms in front of a statue, he replied he did it so he’d get used to being refused. In a similar spirit, Selin Davasse’s video Homo Economicus features a young artist narrating-in-song her dreams and struggles in front of classical sculptures at Berlin’s Altes Museum.
In False Door, Jared Marks speculates on our complex relationship with visibility online in a video which morphs through a blurry assemblage of recognizable formats. Threaded throughout is a fictional narrative around the talking statues of Rome, where medieval Romans could anonymously express subversive opinions.
Natasha Tontey’s My Syrupy Mistake is a stripped down and abstract fictional deconstruction of the basic narrative of Planet of the Apes. As an attempt to observe a story of human behaviour in mastering the nonhuman primates, the video also shows the possibility of resilience and resistance of the other beings in the Primates order. Soundtrack by Divisi62.
The ruins of colonial architecture are the backdrop for this new short video by Stephanie Comilang which mixes narratives around “made up” languages from the Philippines and the Babaylan pre-colonial shamans. Soundtrack provided by Mobilegirl and Chino Amobi.
In Under the Bridge, Larisa Crunteanu takes on space as both liminal and heterotopic. None of this story is visible, but all of it relies on its placement there, on a ‘tram island’, under the bridge. An exercise in slow ontology and a poststructuralist proposal of a stopframe of space as a projection surface.
In Primal Astrology, Nona Inescu overlaps the narratives humans create for themselves through astrology - as a means for a deeper understanding of their existence - with footage of animals held in captivity in a zoo. Their destiny is to be trapped forever in an enclosure, much like the belief that one’s future and defining traits are written in the stars, predetermined by a perpetual astrological cycle.
When Diogenes of Sinope, the 4th century BCE philosopher, was asked why he begged for alms in front of a statue, he replied he did it so he’d get used to being refused. In a similar spirit, Selin Davasse’s video Homo Economicus features a young artist narrating-in-song her dreams and struggles in front of classical sculptures at Berlin’s Altes Museum.
In False Door, Jared Marks speculates on our complex relationship with visibility online in a video which morphs through a blurry assemblage of recognizable formats. Threaded throughout is a fictional narrative around the talking statues of Rome, where medieval Romans could anonymously express subversive opinions.
Natasha Tontey’s My Syrupy Mistake is a stripped down and abstract fictional deconstruction of the basic narrative of Planet of the Apes. As an attempt to observe a story of human behaviour in mastering the nonhuman primates, the video also shows the possibility of resilience and resistance of the other beings in the Primates order. Soundtrack by Divisi62.
The ruins of colonial architecture are the backdrop for this new short video by Stephanie Comilang which mixes narratives around “made up” languages from the Philippines and the Babaylan pre-colonial shamans. Soundtrack provided by Mobilegirl and Chino Amobi.
In Under the Bridge, Larisa Crunteanu takes on space as both liminal and heterotopic. None of this story is visible, but all of it relies on its placement there, on a ‘tram island’, under the bridge. An exercise in slow ontology and a poststructuralist proposal of a stopframe of space as a projection surface.
In Primal Astrology, Nona Inescu overlaps the narratives humans create for themselves through astrology - as a means for a deeper understanding of their existence - with footage of animals held in captivity in a zoo. Their destiny is to be trapped forever in an enclosure, much like the belief that one’s future and defining traits are written in the stars, predetermined by a perpetual astrological cycle.
Texts by Cosmin Tapu
A project co-funded by AFCN. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not to be held responsible for the content of the project, nor for the ways in which the results of the project might be used. Those are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the grant.
The participation of Nona Inescu in this exhibition is supported by SHAPE platform, a project dedicated to sound, heterogeneous art and performance in Europe and co-financed by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.
