Home and Qatsi trilogy

The technological vision of the world has been and today is, a theme described by, literature, philosophy and arts in general. But we have to say that cinema, has to be considered an especial case. It represents, because of its own nature, a double discourse about what is considered the technological world. On one hand, Godfrey Reggio´s trilogy is an essay of the threatening contemporary world. On the other, he uses the medium per excellence to represent the alteration (even disappearance) of space-time barriers: the film editing.

Previous movies like Berlin. Symphony of a city (“Berlin. Die Symphonie der Großstadt”, Walther Ruttmann, 1927)or The man of the camera(“Chelovek skino-apparatom”, Dziga Vertov, 1929) characterize the utopian and an enthusiastic vision of the technological development. This is the first part of twentieth century preponderant feeling in front of technology. Anyway, they reflect changes in customs and lifestyles as well.

It can be perceived as a nostalgic approach about the primitive past. The first film begins with scenes of cavern paintings. The second clearly remarks the handwork, today alive in tribes around the world. In comparison with capitalist society images of overcrowded urban spaces and persuasive advertisements, the author tries to put a small black point in our conscience. In spite of the apocalyptic interpretation, we cannot stop seeing beauty an sublime pictures. During all the films Music is in this sense an important ingredient. It emphasizes the emotional aspect of images. We cannot perceive them as separated elements.

Most of the images in the film have been recorded specially for it. In counted cases archive images has been used. This means that they had to manage with a wide range of material for the edition. The term “filmic landscape” has been used to name this work in Philip Glass webpage.

“If truth is what is verifiable, the truth of contemporary science is not so much the extent of progress achieved as the scale of technical catastrophes occasioned”(Paul Virilio, The information bomb, 2000)

While in Qatsi trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyqatsi) is the musical effect is what intensifies the narration, in Home (Yann Arthus-Bertrand, 2009), the off voice is what marks the rhythm in the film. In a much more didactic way it talks about similar questions. Images are in this case colder. In several cases I would say artificial. They seem like close to be taken form a science book or TV News. Dates and numbers contribute to emphasize the teaching attitude. As a part of the public, the message is not transmitted with the same efficiency as in Reggio´s case. In addition rejection has risen in me.   

Rivers and Tides. Thomas Riedelsheimer. 2001.

As we can read on the artist homepage, Goldsworthy has a defined idea of how to proceed once he faces the landscape. His work is basically characterized by a profound attempt to understand the natural materials. How they act or react, how can they dialogue and their presence and absent as well. As he says, he tries to have a wide point of view, perceiving the environment as a complete whole.

The unpredictable changes give him a wide range of possibilities, and it seems that he can manage any of them. As the film shows, it is not always true.  One of the most impressing –and for me, the most interesting- point of Andy Goldsworthy´s art is his archive. Even if a work is better or worse, it is taken a picture and classified. As he tries to think in an entire landscape, I think we should do the same in order to appreciate his earthworks.This discussion about nature sometimes has its detractors.

There was a kind of upsetting feeling in Rivers and Tides Screening. The immediate reason I can found it that the artist presents a very concrete pint of view that sometimes is difficult to be shared. For most of us, is complicated to find in our reach what is considered “natural” or “landscape” in the video.  The landscape for a huge part of the population is located in towns or suburbs and their works would  probably focus on other  aspects  (speed, pollution or  identity construction…)

Maybe we find disturbing how this subtle and subjective work has been formalized in a film which is closer to a super production more than a documentary project. Soundtrack and photography works as a distraction in order to “read” the work and the artist intention. Anyway, I could not find enough reasons to fail Goldsworthy’s work. Above all, I would say that he acts in consequence with his premises. 

Bright sunny morning, rozen snow, cut slab, scraped snow away with a stick, just short of breaking through.

Andy Goldsworthy. 1987.

House (making off)

As we can observe in the first sight of the artist´s work, there is a predominant contradiccion to cover and discover. In Embankment 2005, Whiteread made negatives of positives of the inside´s boxes finded in her mother´s house. Once she has the pieces, she tried to construct with them piles, as if there were construction blocks.

With House (1993-95), the artist won the Turner price. She covered the inside and outside of one of the latest victorian english houses in London. It was supposed to be destroyed, as it has happened with every similar ones in the area over the time. Her video diary, describes the comprehension process of the corners, windows and partitions in the house. To cover all of this subtlety with concrete, at first can be a bit disgusting. But, as you can perceive during the work sesions, Whiteread uses this rude material as if it was the most delicated one. As a result, the house seems like a big and impenetrable, mable box.

The piece was finally demolished. Probably she knowed it since the beginnig. This accion reflects the desire of preserve. On one hand, transformig a house in a grey block, a sculpture in the middle of the city. On the other, trying to persuade the goverment to see it like a piece of art.

As in other works, preservation idea comes again in her positive of negatives of inner boxes. This containers usually kept memories and personal experiences. What is before considered unique, now is reproduced. As the victorian house, they are static representations demistyfied.

House. Rachel Whiteread. 1993-95.

Český sen

The Czech dream is a documentary film proyect which its main issue is to show how the adverisement campaings has a huge power to manipulate pepole pushing them to consumerism. Capitalism economy recently setted up in Eastern Union conutries shows the changes in the social model and the achievement of new habits. Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak, the documentary directors, could not carry out this proyect without the State support. The ambitious proyect covers tv and radio spots, the comporative identity design, posters on the billboards, flyers, a composed hymn for the hypermarket and also the construction of a false front. The slogans prayed all over the city fo Prague "don´t come" "don´t spend" or "don´t rush". In spite of it, as we probably know, ironi can be used as a market strategy too, so, nobody cared about this negative messages. The great oppening was supposed to take place on the 31 st of May and 4000 people decided to come. Klusak and Remunda were there dressed up as managers and cutted the red ribbon in a simulated ceremony. Then, people went straight to the big fake front. There were sevaral kind of reactions. Some of them, felt upset. Others thought that they considered that it made them think... A men told to the camera that he wouldn´t vote in favour to Czech Republic joins the European Union. This proyect was developped coinciding with the elections for the entry of the Czech Republic in the Uropean Union. The political intention is duplified because both publicity campaigns appear in comparisson.

The film is a kind of sad comedy. We couldn´t avoid to feel unconfortable seeing what was going to happend. People really believed that is was true. For a moment we feel that it is a cruel joke, but sometimes, to leave the things into the extrem is the most effective way to envolve the public. I found very painfull to listen to the citizens talking about their dreams, fueled by comercials. A repeated question comes: does the end justies the means? It depends in the cases. This time I thik that several people were agree with the joung filkmakers, who could cover the costs of their proyect because it generated benefits to their producers. The acceptance of the proyect is an important fact in order to consider if the artists have been really woried about the exposed conflict.

Český sen. Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak. 2003.

Pine Barrens, Nancy Holt. 1975.

Recorded in the south of New Yersey. It is an aproximately half an hour travelling about the pine woods in the area. While pines and pines are appearing we can hear the voices of the population talking about their experiences in relation with their country.

One one hand, we can perceive it as a representation of a landscape. Even it´s not the traditional way, we could say that the frames composition is in a pictoric way. The objective video representation is complemented with the subjective voices of people talking about their experiences. Telling about the place which is being recorded, the film works as a kind of antropologyc experiment. So, this objective-subjective piece, can be considered as well as a document.

Documentation as a piece of art brings the possibility to be closer to the public, showing them a process, in case than an finished object. Something similar happens with descriptions in novels. The narrator arrives to a place and if it is going to be relevant, he will try to tell how is it. This help us to situate ourselves. To sum up, we are invited to take part.

Sometimes the art work can be considered as its own documentation. For example, Hanne Darboven drawings, are the description of its implementation process. Looking at the line thickness and the number of pages, we can have the idea of how much time she was writing on the papers. 

Existenz. Hanne Daeboven. 1966-88.

This is an extract from an interview made by Avalanch to Michael Heizer, Dennis Oppenheim and Robert Smithson in 1970. This is what Smithson said about Pine Barrens area. He as well developped there one of his artworks. Let´s see another point of view.

"[...]The first non-site that I did was the Pine Barrens in southern New Jersey. This place was in a state of equilibrium, it had a kind of tranquility and it was discontinuous from the surrounding area because of its stunted pine trees. There was a hexagon airfield there which lent itself very well to the application of certain crystalline structures which had preoccupied me in my earlier work. A crystal can be mapped out, and in fact I think that it was crystallography which led me to map-making. Initially I went to the Pine Barrens to set up a system of outdoor pavements but in the process I became interested in the abstract aspects of mapping. At the same time I was working with maps and aerial photography for an architectural company. I had great access to them. So I decided to use the Pine Barrens site as a piece of paper and draw a crystalline structure over the landmass rather than on a 20x30 sheet of paper. In this way I was applying my conceptual thinking directly to the disruption of the site over an area of several miles. So you might say my Non-Site was a three-dimensional map of the site."