Forest
Jan 01 2007
•0h 11m
•"In this work, a library of books stands improbably in a clearing in the forest, symbolising ‘a library of knowledge.’ A lion enters, becoming the guardian of this knowledge but also, representing a mythical, other-worldly creature of the imaginary. The lion is driven away as the library is set on fire. Finally, a young lion returns to the city that emerges from the ashes of the scene. Flowers rise from the burnt ground. In this visionary and poetic video artwork the ‘hidden atrocities’ that take place in this animated painting are suggested rather than explained. It becomes a statement about a collective destruction of the environment, and of generational knowledge and wisdom passed through centuries and across cultures for which we must all atone."
Cast
See allAban Raza
Amba Sanyal
Maitreya
Nand Katyal
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Forest
Video installation, 2005, at LOKAAL_01 Breda 2007, Burning Marl, curator Frederik Vergaert in Seppenshuis Zoersel, 2005. A woman walking through 3 video images. Three screens display how the day’s light passes by: from the early morning light until late at night. Along with the woman the artist walks through the forest, in the same rhythm, the same pace. Off-screen she looks through the camera, fragmenting time. The age-old androgynous trees are a vertical constant along which the woman moves, as if in an interval between visibility and invisibility, between sound and silence, while the light keeps on evolving metabletically.

Forest
An experimental short film rendered using real-time graphics. Through contrasting a vibrant, virtual paradise with a dark reality, the film reflects upon humanity’s ignorance of their destructive nature on earth; the innocence of youth and the indifference of adulthood.

A
Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.

Dead Sea
Stranded in the open sea after a fatal accident, a young woman and her two friends are rescued by a fishing vessel's captain, unaware that the ship harbors a chilling secret.