ANAM CARA – Mirror in the Mirror (2020)
Performance-based film
HD digital, 16:9, colour, stereo, 01:30:06
A collective performance-based film about the concept of home, produced during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown in April and May 2020. Twenty-two artists co-created across Athens, Belluno, Berlin, Boston, Düsseldorf, Florence, Folkestone, Lincoln, London, Montreal, Neckarsulm, Venice and Weimar. The result is the filmic journey through an imaginary dwelling. In the rooms, we encounter the artists in performance action, rituals and poetic sharing about their isolated notions of home. A place-non-place, where the invisible is made visible and vice versa. Without inside or outside, we recognise the rooms because they originate from the depths of our hearts. There, encounters continue to be possible despite distance, quarantine and insulation. What does “home” mean when being forced there, and when insecurity, unpredictability, disease and death are the denominators of the moment? What can body-based artists speak about then, and to whom? Physically distant, how can a collective co-creative spirit be kept up?
A production by VestAndPage as part of the HOME cycle of collective performance operas, in collaboration with the Anam Cara Collective, 2020
By and with Verena Stenke & Andrea Pagnes (VestAndPage) in collaboration with Aldo Aliprandi, Marianna Andrigo, Sabrina Bellenzier, Giorgi de Santi, daz disley, Marisa Garreffa, Francesco Kiais, Fenia Kotsopoulou, Ashley-Louise McNaughton, Enok Ripley, Sara Simeoni, Mauro Sambo, Joseph Morgan Schofield, Marcel Sparmann, Susanne Weins, and Giovanni Dantomio, Giorgio de Battisti, Susanna Petternella (Studio Contemporaneo), as well as with contributions by Marilyn Arsem and Franko B.
With original music by Aldo Aliprandi, daz disley, Nat Norland and Mauro Sambo.
The film is inspired by The mirror in the mirror: A Labyrinth, a collection of surreal short stories by Michael Ende originally published in 1984.
+ SPECIAL MENTION in EXPERIMENTAL FILM category in the WINTER SOLSTICE 2020 Edition of the PixelsGARAGE Awards of Excellence
+ Download the Film Poetry Textbook (PDF)
SCREENINGS
/ Private Preview / Castello di Rocca Sinibalda, Italy
27 July 2020, 19:00
Preview in occasion of the finissage of Endecameron 20 digital edition
/ Europe Online Preview / DRIP, Liverpool, UK
August 19, 2020, 19:30 (GMT+1)
UK Preview screening in occasion of SPILL YER TEA
/ Colombia Online Preview / Acciones Al Margen, Bucaramanga, CO
Saturday, August 29, 2020, 15:00 (COT)
/ Asia Online Preview / Arts for Resilience Online Festival, Hong Kong
Centre for Community Cultural Development
September 4, 2020, 20:00 (HKT)
/ Public Premiere / V-A-C Foundation, Venice, IT
Venice International Performance Art Week
November 20, 2020, 14:30/16:15/18:00
Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, RS
Performance Art Film Program
February 6, 2021. 20:30
An original experiment in fusing different art forms to create a comprehensive offering which while maintaining the unique flavours of each of its ingredients, leaves behind a nouveau aftertaste that will soothe the soul. What makes the whole idea even more delightful is that it manifests at a time when the entire world was grappling with a situation that is unpredictable, insecure and gloomy.
