NEW HORIZONS
Panorama 4
Who will emerge as the winners of the new world order? Neo-conservatives? Utopians? Globalists? Or will it be gangsta rappers? In this selection, new and old candidates present themselves in a struggle for ideals. But what are our ideals exactly and who defines them? Bear witness to a struggle in the arena of political and cultural codes. The verdict is yours.
They Shine – Rosa Barba
USA, 2008, 35mm, 04:00 min
In her work, Rosa Barba focuses on idealistic sceneries from a recent past. In this film she zooms in on a field of solar panels in the Mojave desert. A fragmented voice-over recalls memories and fictional stories about these strange machines from inhabitants of a nearby village. In a meditative fashion a series of solar panels slowly moves towards the sun, reflecting their wide surroundings.
‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ – Witte van Hulzen & Sander Breure
Uganda, 2008, video, 13:00 min
For this work Van Hulzen travelled through Uganda for three months together with Sander Breure. You’ll Never Walk Alone shows young men playing in surrealistic scenes that refer to Western film history and popular culture. A mixture of African culture, 50 Cent and cowboy hats.
Dear Advisor – Vincent Meessen
Belgium, 2008, video, 08:00 min
Meessen’s work is set in Chandigarh, the ideal of the modernist city planned by Le Corbusier in the 1950s as a symbol of the new, progressive nation of India who had just emerged from its colonial past. Due to its strategic situation – close to the frontier with Pakistan and on the border between two Indian states, Punjab and the subsequently created state of Haryana – Chandigarh houses common institutions for both linguistic communities. The city’s architectural structure is that of a grid pattern, at the very centre of which the ‘Capitol’ rises: a phantasm of centralised political power, overlooking the unfinished city. Haunted by the ghosts of modernism, it leaves plenty of room for silhouettes, voices and sounds weaving together a fable cherished by the late architect about the Raven that wants to imitate the Eagle. Dear Advisor is a poetic address to le Corbusier and the legislator in Chandigarh superstitiously disguised as “advisor.”.
Ottica Zero – Maja Borg
United kingdom, 2007, video, 13:00 min
Soon after her ‘big break’, Italian actress Nadya Cazan disappeared. With TV and film offers flooding in, she refused to accept the competitive and superficial values of the society they represented. Ottica Zero follows Nadya on her search to find an alternative way of living; a quest to discover a means to recycle the whole spectrum of cultures and political ideologies into a new way of managing a global society. It is a journey, which takes us from Rome to Venus, where 91-year- old social innovator and futurist, Jacques Fresco, proposes a solution.
Ottica Zero is a film about people who refuse to conform to the present and instead choose to live in their own concepts of the future, here and now. Instead of adapting a postmodern worldview with multiple truths, they look at the common needs of global society in order to provide people with the necessities of life through the universal methodology of science.
The New China – Sun Xun
China, 2008, video, 05:19 min
All inspiration derived from a small book called New China given by a friend of mine. This book was probably printed the Second World War. It is written by a missionary who lived in China for many years and knows China very well. The general content of this book tells people how to love their country, how to construct their country, how to be a useful person and tells about China’s revolution of that time.
Speech Bubble – Adam Leech
Belgium, 2008, video, 05:00 min
Adam Leech investigates connections between speech, vocal semantics and the political economy behind the construction of social space and public life. Speech Bubble started as an investigation of a Belgian speech recognition company that had gone bankrupt. The result is a fast dialogue between a salesman and his wife, reminiscing better times.
Re:akt! – Lucas Bambozzi
Brazil, 2009, video, 10:15 min
In May 2006 PCC, an anti-establishment Brazilian prison gang and criminal organization, coordinated the largest wave of violence of its kind against security forces and civilian targets that ever happened in the history of Brazil. One of the most interesting aspects of the events in São Paulo was probably the role of the media in the entire episode. This applies to the organization of the revolts, which were orchestrated by a handful of prisoners and their outside contacts by mobile phone, mostly using text messages and short pre-paid calls. The Day São Paulo Stopped is a project that attempts to analyse this particular aspect of the events in São Paulo, and takes the form of a single flow of images: both “original” material, conveyed by the mass media or produced by those involved in the events, and material “reconstructed” by the artist for the occasion. The result is a series of videos which roll out different versions of the events, and which, when taken together, form a complex, fragmented, multifaceted mockumentary.
Civilization (Megaplex) – Marco Brambilla
USA, 2008, video, 02:40 min
Civilization depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through the modern language of film using computer-enhanced found footage. This epic video mural contains over 300 individual channels of looped video blended into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images that illustrates a contemporary, satirical take on the concepts of Heaven and Hell.