A film by Muriel Paraboni
Nothing but the top of a tree and the chimney of a factory. Gray clouds blend with the smoke
that flows without stopping. This is the start and also the end point for this visual essay,
which explores the potentialities of glitch and digital imagery to address the dichotomies
between aesthetics and politics, abstraction and figuration, contemplation and thought.
The Factory is an experimental minimalist piece that can best be defined by the notion rescued
at the basis of John Cage´s work: from looking repeatedly at the same object, its depth
is revealed. In fact, this notion is related to a Zen proverb that says that “in the beginning mountains
are mountains and the rivers are rivers, in the middle mountains are no longer mountains nor rivers are rivers,
but in the end mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers again”, describing the paths our perceptions
take in the search for apprehend the essential reality of phenomena.
Short | Videoart | 5′ | 2018
Produced and Directed by Muriel Paraboni
Score by Mescalibur and ono (c) 2018
Statement
The Factory is part of a series of experiments in videography involving the relations between aesthetics and politics, with the modes of perception as a hub. It discusses the relations between abstract thought and figuration, the movements and passages between contemplation, critical judgment, consciousness and discourse as incident plot or content.
The work unfolds, in the field of art, questions about figurative as abstract purity, questioning both political-ecological and the aesthetic-contemplative aproaches and their interrelationships. Technological incisions of production,
from the making to editing and processing of the images, bring glitch, chance and accident to the sphere of control relative to the rhythms of assembly and composition of the work.
In the field of discourse the film questions the political gaze, with ecology as a model of its selective contents. At the same time, it makes evident the limits of the abstract ideas, when it becomes a hermetic space without contact with concrete reality. It is the dialogue this work in process seeks to mediate, not without running all risks of entropy and implosion.
Screenings
Reconfigurações do Agora | Espaço Cultural Castellan – Canoas, Brazil – JAN 2024
London Experimental Film Festival | Center 151 Haggerston – London, UK – APR 2022
ALC Video Art Festival | Alicante Comtemporary Art Museum – Alicante, Spain – MAY 2020
London Experimental Film Festival | Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum – London, UK – MAY 2020
Media Companion | Woosuk Gallery – Seoul, South Korea – DEC 2019
Lisbon Film Rendezvous | Lisbon Arts Centre (LACS) – Lisbon, Port – OUT 2019
Dobra Int Exp Film Fest | Museum of Mod Art – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – SET 2019
New Mills Festival | Art Theatre – New Mills, UK – SET 2019
Códec Int Exp Film Festival | Cineclub Condesa – CDMX/Mexico – SET 2019
Bogotá Int Exp Film Festival | French Alliance – Bogotá, Colombia – AUG 2019
FILE Eletronic Language Festival | SESI Art Gallery – São Paulo, Brazil – JUN 2019
Time Share: night of Screenings | Lakewood Center – Lakewood, USA – MAY 2019
Interrupted Exp Videoart | Firehouse Cult Center – Ruskin, FLD, USA – APR 2019
InFrestAção Mostra Vídeo | Rio Grande Book Fair – Rio Grande, Brazil – JAN 2019
Istambul Int Experimental Film Festival | Istambul, Turkey – NOV 2018
Códec Int Experimental Film Festival | Casa Tavalera – CDMX, Mexico – AUG 2018
Códec Int Exp Film Festival | Pulqueria Insurgentes – CDMX/Mexico – SEP 2018
Códec Int Exp Film Festival | La Azotéa – Mexatlán/Mexico – NOV /2018
Mostra Fresta Audiovisual | Rio Grande, Brazil – NOV 2018
Mostra Arte, Cinema e Audiovisual | Santa Maria, Brazil – JUL 2018
