16 mm film, 5 min, loop
Video, 3:18 min
The installation by Sirah Foighel Brutmann and Eitan Efrat captures two spontaneous moments. One shows Rita, the artist’s daughter, as she is filmed by her father. She demands to know what is guiding the situation, while authority is contested by the volume of her voice. Then she enters the frame and claims the picture that is being taken of her, first by becoming the protagonist and then by tapping on the camera. She thus challenges the power relationship created between the image and its creation. The 16 mm film captures a lightning storm on the Mediterranean Sea. Contrary to the assumption that it occurs erratically, lightning does often strike twice in the same location. Through its constant projection in a continuous loop, the linear film sequence becomes a cycle. Over time, the material of the 16 mm film accumulates scratches that appear in the image as inscriptions alongside the lightning bolts. This way, the materiality of the film and its traces of use become part of the work. Foighel Brutmann and Efrat’s piece is a poetic approach to the idea of continuous rewriting and its material and social conditions.
