| FROM BANISHMENT TO BANISHMENT - Homage to María Zambrano
2019 / 16:9 / stereo. Running time: 67 min.
Original composition by Ebba Rohweder
Quotations: María Zambrano, Claros del bosque, Ediciones Cátedra, 2011 and
La otra cara del exilio, Inaugural text for the Summer Course of the
Universidad Complutense de Madrid in El Escorial, 1989
Premiere: Galerías VII, La Cárcel, Segovia Centro de Creación, 2019
stills from the video FROM BANISHMENT TO BANISHMENT - Homage to María Zambrano
FROM BANISHMENT TO BANISHMENT - Homage to María Zambrano
The video From banishment to banishment is a tribute to María Zambrano through images, quotes from Claros del bosque (Forest glades) and La otra cara del exilio (The other side of exile) and an original composition for flutes and voice.
The images in the video consist of recordings in and around a small village in Guadalajara/Spain where I spend long periods of time. The gaze focused on little details, on changes of light, on minute movements maps the territory: the stones and their shapes, the earth and its colours, the sky and the mist. Focusing from unusual angles, ant's perspective or on found objects produces a visual abstraction that allows one to float in space. An extremely slow visual rhythm allows one to enter into observation and lose oneself in contemplation.
The soundtrack is a contemporary composition made by me for the video of flute and voice sounds scattered in the silence. Snippets of soft, slow-paced sounds with an intimate dynamic almost like a soliloquy, appearing and disappearing in long sequences of silence, sometimes overlapping but never accumulating. The composition adds a third dimension to the video, opening the space to an enveloping atmosphere as important as the image.
The quotations are phrases chosen from Claros del bosque (Forest glades) and La otra cara del exilio (The other side of exile) of the spanish philosopher María Zambrano. Like the music, they appear at certain moments as text in the video, remaining in view for a long time so that they can be read calmly. They are like a sign of a starting point, like brushstrokes, drops that infiltrate, like hooks when one has lost one's way. They appear loose as intuitive hints - floating in the air. At the same moment they attract and free the intellect from reflection to make room again for feeling.
The video From banishment to banishment is a visual poem elaborated after a long process of preparation amalgamating reflection, intellectual intuition and sensitive intuition. Surrendering myself to the environment, to the landscape, only reachable in time, with time, confusing myself with the environment, diluting myself in the immensity. It translates into a poetic and sublime atmosphere and sensibility that evokes the essence of María Zambrano, becoming a living-lived experience. This opens up a sensitive space that permeates and caresses practically all the senses.
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