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Rising Horizon

Rising Horizon

From the studio, to the gallery. Highlights of a talk between David Cass & Professor David Reay of Edinburgh University, offering two takes on Cass’ exhibition ‘Rising Horizon’: from a creative perspective, and a scientific one. ‘Rising Horizon’ introduces the topic of rising sea levels to Cass’ art practice.

Duration : 11m
Maturity Level : all

Here and There. Now and Then

Here and There. Now and Then

With Here and There. Now and Then Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar Romero explores the esparto grass. These extremely resistant grasses shape the Mediterranean landscape, from sun-up to sun-down. Esparto – a seemingly fragile fibre – has in fact been one of the building blocks of the area for millennia, as well as the human cultures where it is found. Its morpho-structural and physiological ability to adapt makes it able to cope with hydric-stress and increasingly hot temperatures – particularly in areas of southern Spain, the setting of previous video ‘El Bosque Encarnado’, where desertification is already taking hold. This grass aids production of mosses, lichens and cyanobacteria, all of them fundamental elements in every ecosystem.

Duration : 14m
Maturity Level : all

Island

Island

Island is an art film by Duda Carvalho where a girl reflects on strange new environmental forces.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

31 Cubes

31 Cubes

31, π x π x π, cubes aligned, π distanced from each other by Moshe Vollach A long row of, 61 identical-size cubes, is stretched toward the horizon, composing a string of: matter cube – space cube – matter cube – space cube…. The cubes are made of ice, placed in the desert on a hot summer day on June 2016. The defrosting process is documented, from the air and from the ground, using 5 stills cameras in time-lapse mode. When the process is complete, a row of 61 identical cubes remains: space cube – space cube – space cube – space cube…. The art-work refers to the relationship between matter and space in the field of art in general and Sculpture in particular. The project accentuates – formative, climatic, physical, mathematical and geomorphologic - contrasts. This land-art project discusses: global warming, radical climate changes, icebergs defrosting and desertification.

Duration : 8m
Maturity Level : all

Ele

Ele

Magda Stützer-Tothova Two time travelers encounter each other in an abstract space and learn about their respective lives, unaware that their fates are interwoven. While the character from the past cannot yet guess that the actions of his society will have destructive consequences for nature and the future, the protagonist from the future does not understand the circumstances under which people existed in her own past. The catastrophe, which caused a huge devastation seems to be irreversible.

Duration : 14m
Maturity Level : all

déNATURE

déNATURE

Judith Lesur A small succession of scenes that mixes the worlds of the masters of Flemish painting with contemporary elements to illustrate the destruction of the living that takes place in the name of progress and comfort.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Simulation

Simulation

Shin Jungkyun All the elements in Simulation’s partitioned three-dimensional space – the smoke, the vibrations, the wind and water – are devices included to create a particular scene. With such a staged disaster or emergency, the participants expect to learn some pre-designed pattern of behavior. But then something unexpected happens: the character in Simulation speaks out, declining to go along with the anticipated theater. In a subway car thick with smoke, he remains in place and performs a handstand. Struck by the water, vibrations, and wind coming down the staircase, he lurches forward. He is too alive to be called powerless, too frail to be called strong. Eliciting a temporary pausing effect, the scene recalls Brecht’s attempt to turn theater from a place of illusion to one of a practical experience. In other words, by distancing us from and rendering a strange contemporary experience where we exist in a form of temporary theater, Shin encourages us to notice the unstable – or perhaps artificial – ground upon which we stand.

Duration : 10m
Maturity Level : all

Symbiotic

Symbiotic

Catherine Schoch In nature as in life to survive and to thrive relationships are critical. Symbiotic is a contemplative window into some of the relationships that thrive at the waters edge of a healthy river ecosystem. Clouds reflect clear and clean flowing water. Vegetation connects and responds to this flow gently breathing with the water. Birds fly past. Fish swim under. Insects drift and feast. A perfection symbiotic relationship.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

I’ll See You in The Trees

I’ll See You in The Trees

Inspired by Angelo Badalamenti and David K. Lynch’s song ’Sycamore Trees’, work ’I’ll See You in the Trees’ by Nina Sumarac is a comparative study of people and trees, which explores humanity and its complexities within the context of nature, thus forging a path to selfrealization. In a bid to convey dynamic connectivity, which neutralizes bias while initiating empathy and compassion, participants were asked to illustrate their innermost self while considering the anatomical attributes of trees. It is these deep personal insights, which the artist has forested into a collective plantation of 110 curated selves/people that offers viewers a truly polyphonous experience. Re-establishing this symbiotic connection is an attempt at saving trees and people simultaneously since both are under threat.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Arde lo que será

Arde lo que será

Avelino Sala presents soccer players from many national teams and countries playing with a ball on fire, a balloon exercise. A metaphor of how our planet is consumed, exhausted at the end of a time that leads us to the end of the earth as the place we have known.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Interfaces III – Man // Water // Sun

Interfaces III – Man // Water // Sun

In this work artist Oskar Metsavaht brings us together with his metaphysical experience conducted through shamanic rituals in the middle of the Amazon Forest. He leads us through moments where the human relationship with nature is made by his interface with the Sun through Water - sources of life and celebration. An ode to Water as a form of manifesto for indigenous peoples threatened by its contamination caused by the increase in illegal gold mining in their territories.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Amazonian Manifesto I – Gold Mining

Amazonian Manifesto I – Gold Mining

“As a Brazilian, my relationship with the Amazon comes since young. But it was on an expedition in 1994 that I first understood and connected to its cultural and spiritual energy. My admiration for its rich biodiversity and ancestral knowledge in contrast with the destruction of forests and rivers by the fires, mining and logging industries, together with the neglect of indigenous culture and their land rights makes me become an Amazon Guardian. There is no way you come back from the Amazon and not become an activist”. Oskar Metsavaht

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Call The Doctor

Call The Doctor

A series of images by Isaac Alex that poetically tell the story of our ailing planet and the need for us to come together as a people to fight against climate change.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Swing

Swing

With this work, Katy Unger blends fantasy and reality to blur the line between nature as a place of leisure and the rapidly changing weather patterns that result from human inaction to climate change. The individual on the swing sways back and forth on a continuous loop, oblivious to the passing of time and the changing elements he oscillates through. The pendulum creaks with each forward and backward motion - a subtle reminder of its impermanence and the weight that our passivity carries.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Kingdom

Kingdom

Kingdom by Bettina Oberli(Switzerland) tells the short story of a woman, maybe the last woman on earth, who has to live on a post-apocalyptic planet. She has to survive the very hot days, and hide from the burning sun, while the only source of water is the little piece of glacier she tries to protect from melting with the remains of a lost world. Only at night, she finds peace and consolation in her memories and with other living creatures. Even under the hardest conditions she will not give up and finds strength in the encounter with the animals. Emily Beecham (Best Actress 2019 at Cannes) leaves us with a strong feeling, between rage and courage, full of hope and determinism.

Duration : 11m
Maturity Level : all

Hungry Seagull

Hungry Seagull

On an island not far from the mainland, the young father seagull is anxiously guarding the newborn gulls by the nest and awaiting the return of the mother seagull. The mother seagull has given up everything she has, but the baby seagull is still hungry. The father seagull had flown away in search of more food... The main diet of black-tailed gulls is pelagic fish in the sea, mollusks and aquatic insects in coastal wetlands and estuaries. However, with the overfishing of offshore fish and the pollution of the marine environment, seagulls can catch fewer and fewer small fish in the upper layer. A film by Leon Wang, China.

Duration : 7m
Maturity Level : all

Arctic Study

Arctic Study

Beth Derbyshire was invited by Cape Farewell Project to one of their ground-breaking artist and scientist-manned expeditions to the Arctic. This first Artic Study is inspired by Barnett Newmann’s abstract paintings with a commissioned piano piece by composer Ulrike Haage.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Tuã Ingugu

Tuã Ingugu

As the Xingu indigenous live in close symbiosis with water, rivers in Sao Paulo are perishing due to worrying levels of water pollution from chemicals used in the agro-business industry and plastic. This short movie by Daniela Thomas (Brazil) captures the relationship between the Xingu community and their river, and the emotions of one of them when he is taken to see the Sao Paulo rivers. A poetic movie to denounce water pollution and the challenging prospects for the future of both indigenous people and city folks.

Duration : 11m
Maturity Level : all

Extraction: The Raft of The Medusa

Extraction: The Raft of The Medusa

In this film Salome Lamas (Portugal) portrays a brief moment of euphoria as the occupants on the raft spot a glimpse illusion for their drift, hoping and praying to be rescued. We can almost hear the hoarse cries in an attempt to draw attention to their desperate plight, mustering their last ounce of strength to the void. This is their last chance of survival. The film is an allegory for the state of climate and environmental emergency.

Duration : 7m
Maturity Level : all

A Sunny Day

A Sunny Day

FaouziBensaidi (Morocco) proposes a disturbing and hilarious ride in the future, which is already our present. Under the impacts of a changing climate, the world changes, it has already changed. In a distant and near future, both fantastic and absurd, men and women survive as they can. Following a man, a slender figure between Tati and Buster Keaton, we discover through scenes of his daily life how devastating the effects of climate change are on humans and nature. How do we barricade against excessive heat or cold? How will it be to go to a supermarket or a zoo filled with different animals and species? A disturbing and hilarious ride in the future, that is already our present.

Duration : 13m
Maturity Level : all

Lac

Lac

Kellou, in her forties, lives in Bol, the capital of Sahel’s province. She’s a fisher, a profession transmitted from mother to daughter. She learned it from her mother. But for a few years, Lake Tchad has been shrinking, and fish has become rare. Kellou’s job is threatened. One day, after an un- successful catch, her 12-year-old daughter Mouna gives her an idea: pick up plastic bags invading the lake and make ropes out of them to sell them on the market. By this simple gesture, Kellou gets to, in her own way, fight against plastic pollution and adapt to the new conditions brought about by climate change. A film by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad, 2022.

Duration : 7m
Maturity Level : all

Sweating Sweet

Sweating Sweet

Orit Raff The video Sweating Sweet shows the artist walking slowly, barefoot, on the beach, along the coastline. She is wearing a white pinafore. She takes sugar from the pocket of her pinafore that she scatters into the saltwater. The pocket with the sugar becomes an integral part of her stomach, the sugar a product of her body and her work. Of course,the attempt to turn the salty seawaterinto sweet water fit for drinking and irrigation fails. Freshwater is an extremely scarce resource in an arid country, and her attempt to “repair” the sea, to deconstruct a given situation, is a Sisyphean task doomed to failure. Every wave breaking upon the beach “corrects” the disturbance she creates. In her works, Raff sets out to change states of aggregation and subvert the laws of nature via repetitious ritualistic acts.

Duration : 10m
Maturity Level : all

Arctic Dystopia

Arctic Dystopia

Michael Najjar observes the Arctic changing, the eternal ice disappearing, and the polar regions. The early warning system of our planet is sounding the alarm. In late summer – a time when the Arctic ice reaches its annual minimum point – the area covered by ice was smaller than it had been for a thousand years. What is the future of the Arctic ice masses which store enough water to make sea levels rise by several meters if they melt? Despite its aesthetic fascination, the video work “arctic dystopia” paints a threatening picture with regard to the future transformation of the world due to the consequences of climate change and the resultant loss of Arctic ice which is so vital for ensuring a stable climate. We are dependent on the glaciers and ice sheets in the polar regions for the maintenance of our planet in its present state of equilibrium; their increasing and ever more rapid loss will drastically change our world.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Liquid Landscape

Liquid Landscape

The artwork “Liquid Landscape” by Michael Najjar is based on spectacular, hitherto technically impossible footage shot together with an Icelandic drone pilot shortly after the eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland in March 2021. In an 8-minute flight, the camera moved over a newly born volcanic landscape. During the flight, the landscape becomes more and more liquefied and the camera always keeps a bird’s eye view of the increasing activity beneath it until it finally reaches the eruption crater and plunges into a Dantesque inferno. On the acoustic level, a complex sound composition enlarges the increasingly dramatic happenings on the surface. The unusual immersive visuals draw viewers deeper and deeper into the landscape and let them feel the transformation process and the creative power of the Earth.

Duration : 8m
Maturity Level : all