The Blinding Light

Artists’ films and experimental cinema screening

curated by Sara Castelo Branco, in collaboration with Cinema Fratelli Marx.

15th December 2021 h. 7:30 pm
@ Cinema Fratelli Marx - Corso Belgio 53, Turin
Free entry

Several prehistoric and ancient cultures believed that the Sun was a solar deity - the universal symbol of the infinite and the principle of creation, origin and the divine. If, according to some authors, solar emissions have a biopolitical impact on human sociology, psychology, politics and historical events, the energy of the sun also keeps the planet functional, regulates the biological rhythms of plants and humans, and is part of a contemporary global capital of technological and economic power.
Based on this heterogeneous perspective on the sun, this session of artists' films and experimental cinema brings together a series of works that approach the meta-historical and poetic dimension of solar cosmology, proposing to capture the variable expressiveness of the sun, especially its relationship with science, technology, shamanism and cultural representations. Therefore, these films address elements such as the visual and sonic dimension of solar astronomy; the intersection between nature and technological sublime; the eco-feminist perspective of time and energy; and, the shamanic and atavistic composition of the sun's irradiation.

Hyborian Witch (2013) – Alex MacKenzie
3’, video digital, colour, sound
The clouds part, a punishing sun bakes the fields, insects descend on dusty crops.
No rituals will save us. 
Culled from a selection of ephemeral films and NASA footage.
Audio by Kensington Gore.

Le Soleil Tout Entier Ne Se Trouve Nulle Part (2020-2021) – Jérôme Cognet
12’11’’, video, colour, sound
Inspired by Isaac Asimov's story Nightfall, this film portrays the anxiety and hysteria of a civilization that has never known night, in the face of the impending death of the suns that compose its solar system. The images are taken from scenes of existing narrative films where the sun is predominant, and from which all human forms have been erased in post-production. The soundtrack comes from sound recordings of the energy produced by solar winds captured by NASA's Parker Probe.

Tonalli (2021) – Colectivo Los Ingrávidos
16’20’’, 16mm transferred to video, colour, sound
Tonalli is a shamanic composition in three parts: an atavistic preparation for a Flower War (Xochiyáoyotl); a solar-lunar ceremonial brazier (Tlecacitl) where Xolotl emerges in his turbulent opacity; finally, a solar irradiation (Tonalli) that manifests in the world as the flowing cosmic blood in which all beings are immersed. A Mesoamerican spell unleashed.

El Nido del Sol (2021) – Colectivo Los Ingrávidos
5’14’’, 16mm transferred to video, colour, sound
In El Nido del Sol, Xolotl, Huitzilin and Xochitl meet to recover the dance of radiation, whose colourful heat stirs the new fire of their cosmic dance.

The blinding light and Theater of Sun are realized with the contribution of Fondazione CRT, Regione Piemonte and Shuttle Program/Pláka - Porto. 

Cripta747 would like to thank the Cinema Fratelli Marx and its staff for their support and hospitality. The artists would like to thank the Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory of Coimbra, specially the solar physicist Ricardo Gafeira and the museologist Pedro Casaleiro.