Influx - Lumière Curated by Video Power

INFLUX opent vragen over autoriteit en de vertegenwoordiging van macht. Duizenden jaren lang hebben autoriteiten beelden gebruikt om gemeenschappelijke waarden te creëren en waardering voor hun onderwerpen te krijgen. Degenen met toegang tot de kunsten en de verspreiding van afbeeldingen waren ook diegenen die macht konden verkrijgen en behouden (de kerk, koningen, aristocraten, enz.). Maar de wereld verandert. De presentatie en verspreiding van onze meest persoonlijke ervaringen in de vorm van afbeeldingen zijn onderdeel van ons dagelijks leven geworden. Goedkope massamedia hebben een nieuw tijdperk ingeluid waarin 'zelfgemaakte' foto's ongebreideld vloeien. Sneller dan ooit worden beelden ontdaan van hun context, krijgen ze nieuwe betekenissen, verspreiden ze nieuwe waarden en wekken ze nieuwe waardering op. INFLUX onderzoekt verschillende lagen van de hedendaagse beeldproductie en zijn rol in de bevestiging van bestaande machtsstructuren.

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Programma

19.15 Zaal open
19.30 Introductie door Video Power
19.40 Screening Eye Farm
20.00 Screening Déploiements
20.16 Screening Hello Joe
20.35 Screening Complete Dynamics
21.55 Einde

Eye Farm by Beny Wagner (2016)
The Netherlands, 2016, 20 min., English spoken, no subtitles

In Eye Farm the old proverb “we are what we eat” takes on a new meaning. Wheat, we are informed, supplies us with a yellow pigment that protects the human eye and enables vision. What starts as a video essay about the chemical relation between agriculture and the human eye turns into a reflection on the relationship between image production, private property and the affirmation of existing power structures

AVANT PREMIÈRE: Déploiements by Stéphanie Lagarde (2018)
France, The Netherlands, 2018, 16 min., French spoken, English subtitles

Ever since Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, “the monopoly on violence” has been considered the defining concept of a state. Governments deploy whatever means necessary to protect this monopoly, be it physically or symbolically. Déploiements shows the role images play in the imposition and affirmation of power. The video draws a parallel between two types of simulation: a team of fighter pilots mentally preparing for an air show, and a piece of software that simulates the behavior of an angry crowd.

AVANT PREMIÈRE: Hello Joe by Graham Kelly (2017)
The Netherlands, 2017, 19 min., English spoken, no subtitles

Images of power do not only inhabit the public realm. As we have seen in Inner Sanctum, they can become part of our unconscious and therefore of our private experience. Filmed overnight in several Airbnbs, Hello Joe, reveals how the corporate world can creep into peoples homes. It is like a hymn to the borders that are blurring between the private and the public, the domestic and the corporate. We see everyday objects accumulate new layers of meaning. A simple stove, a unicorn fountain or a rabbit cage are not only regarded as utilities or personal ornaments, but have now become content to be exploited by big multinationals.

Complete Dynamics by Diogo Baldaia (2017)
Portugal, Belgium, The Netherlands, 2017, 20 min., English spoken, no subtitles

As the active exchange of images has become an important aspect of both social and economic life, resistance has become a difficult course of action. The only way to escape the constant flow of images is by turning away from public life, detaching from the private sphere and turning off your mind, that is to say, by sleeping. But what happens when one cannot sleep? Suffering from insomnia himself, Diogo Baldaia imagines sleeping as a way of resistance; as the only way of turning off our materialistic impulses. Insomnia provokes a state of being in which the mind is not able to escape a reality overpopulated by commercial images. Complete Dynamics presents a new service for those who can’t sleep. From now on, pre-fab images enter the subconscious, take the place of one’s most intimate memory and offer complete depersonalisation. A perfect tool for those who desire to escape themselves