WELT SPIEGEL KINO – Tryptichon (WORLD MIRROR CINEMA - Triptych)
The second end product of the “WORLD MIRROR CINEMA Episodes 1-3” film project was developed further into a 3 channel DVD installation. WORLD MIRROR CINEMA is an alternating reflection of the reality of the world and the reality of cinema. It is based on three finds of documentary footage from the early days of cinematography. Similar to a triptych the three episodes run parallel and simultaneously on three projections. By means of this comparison the interconnections with regards to content of the three episodes are highlighted. These include interconnections between locations, people and filmic quotations.
The people portrayed in the episodes enter a dialog: the Dutch sugar manufacturer from Surabaya with a monkey on his arm meets the general in Salazar’s Portugal as he is kissing a parrot. The girl writing to Father Christmas in Vienna meets two boys from Java dancing in animal costumes. The Portuguese national hero José do Telhado, from the movie of the same title meets Fritz Lang’s Siegfried in the Apollo cinema in Surabaya and Sherlock Holmes from the Danish film “The Black Cap” in the Kinematograf Theater in Erdberg, Vienna.
The viewer is directed by the sound. The original soundtracks of all three episodes run parallel and simultaneously as well in the background at low volume. Each projection has an allocated loudspeaker. According to the importance of the events, for example a new zoom on a person, the volume of the soundtrack is turned up in order to foreground that sequence and direct the viewers’ attention towards it.
The “surfing” on short wave radio with interfering stations – the basic idea behind the film soundtrack – is thereby compacted even more. This further elucidates the concept of interconnections between similar scenes and characters from all three episodes by means of sound (Leitmotif). For example the ringing of bells while the girl in Vienna is writing her letter, during the confirmation scene of the girls in Porto and while there are three girls dancing in Surabaya.
Presentation at the solo exhibition REFLECTIONS, in Galeria de Arte Cinemática Solar, Vila do Conde / Porto, 2006
