VHS: VIDEO HOME SYSTEM (2012)
HD video 16.9, color, mono sound, 39 min, The Netherlands – Portugal
Production: Lamaland
Support: Sandberg Instituut
Distribution: Collectif Jeune Cinema, Kinoscope
How can I lie that I’m asleep and be faster than my body? – ‘But it wasn’t so violent, was it?’ She stayed in bed repeating that she was sleepy for 40 minutes. ‘I’ve wanted it to be almost like a mantra and to generate tension.’ The embroidery draw maps the relation between a mother and a daughter. Time past and time present if all time is eternally present all time is unredeemable. ‘It was a school exercise, I would use what was close to me, what was domestic, and you were part of it’ Fourteen years have past. I take her images; I compel her to answer me. She is the mother. She is the daughter. She is my mother.
It was developed under the frame of Fine Arts Master Program of the Sandberg Instituut, Gerrit Rietveld Academie and first exhibited at first exibited at Kunstvlaai / Art Pie, a biennial art event organized by Sandberg Instituut, Gerrit Rietveld Academie with external partners, Amsterdam (10-18 May 2010)Collectif Jeune Cinema
Lamaland
Sandberg Instituut
I don’t want you to film me.
What do you need me for?
Why don’t you do it yourself?
We have similar voices.
You could do it only as a soundtrack.
That way you wouldn’t need me. There is a video within this video, where we see you as a little girl repeating to the camera, “I’m sleepy, I’m sleepy,” over and over again. Because of this repetition, acting stops being a role. Eventually we see you falling asleep—or pretending to. I like to think you did, it would be another way of falling. Your mother names A Woman Under the Influence, John Cassavetes’ film (1974) as a comparison. In this film, Gena Rowlands’ character desperately conveys: “Tell me what you want me to be, how you want me to be. I can be that! I can be anything. You tell me, Nicky.” What is what you expect from the spectator when confronted, not only with time, but also with the evidence of manipulation, repeated histories, and the fragility of our stories?
Mónica Saviron, On Vhs: Video Home System
I don’t want you to film me.
What do you need me for?
Why don’t you do it yourself?
We have similar voices.
You could do it only as a soundtrack.
That way you wouldn’t need me. There is a video within this video, where we see you as a little girl repeating to the camera, “I’m sleepy, I’m sleepy,” over and over again. Because of this repetition, acting stops being a role. Eventually we see you falling asleep—or pretending to. I like to think you did, it would be another way of falling. Your mother names A Woman Under the Influence, John Cassavetes’ film (1974) as a comparison. In this film, Gena Rowlands’ character desperately conveys: “Tell me what you want me to be, how you want me to be. I can be that! I can be anything. You tell me, Nicky.” What is what you expect from the spectator when confronted, not only with time, but also with the evidence of manipulation, repeated histories, and the fragility of our stories?
Mónica Saviron, On Vhs: Video Home System
Mónica Saviron, On Vhs: Video Home System