2023
Performers
Jesse Blaauw
Lisa Jasperina Bommerson
Emirhakin
Ahmed El Gendy
Arthur Jules
Jana Keijdener
Yvonne van der Laan
Ratri Notosudirdjo
Lova Ranung
Julija Steponaityte
Micaela Terk
Camera
Nicola Baratto
Tibor Dieters
Color Grading
Julija Steponaityte
Set design
Arthur Jules
Mylan Hoezen
Assistants
Anahita Alebouyeh
Sophia Lengle
Text
Anik Fournier
Support
DOOR Foundation
Sandberg Instituut
A short film followed eleven individuals ascending a staircase toward an imagined elsewhere. The scene unfolds as a ritual passage between realities, merging the conscious with the subconscious.
“I am sitting on a few steps that lead down off the exhibition space on the second floor of Kunstverein, Amsterdam, to a room where the publications from the institution are kept on tall metal bookshelves. The stairs are nestled between the first row of shelving and a wall, creating an intimate narrow corridor space at the end of which is a mid-sized screen on the floor, leaning up against the back wall. Within the image, a monumental wooden staircase is centred in an abandoned industrial space. It reaches up toward skylight windows through which sunlight floods in. I find myself slowly drawn into this dreamy space, which spills over into mine through an atmospheric soundscape. The world which appears is one of repetition and eternal returns, as one performer after another gradually and deliberately makes their way up the huge stairs, one step at a time. The process is slow and arduous, they are up against elemental forces, but well worth the effort, for as they reach the top step and their face bathes in light, they are moved, some to tears.” (Read more)
“I am sitting on a few steps that lead down off the exhibition space on the second floor of Kunstverein, Amsterdam, to a room where the publications from the institution are kept on tall metal bookshelves. The stairs are nestled between the first row of shelving and a wall, creating an intimate narrow corridor space at the end of which is a mid-sized screen on the floor, leaning up against the back wall. Within the image, a monumental wooden staircase is centred in an abandoned industrial space. It reaches up toward skylight windows through which sunlight floods in. I find myself slowly drawn into this dreamy space, which spills over into mine through an atmospheric soundscape. The world which appears is one of repetition and eternal returns, as one performer after another gradually and deliberately makes their way up the huge stairs, one step at a time. The process is slow and arduous, they are up against elemental forces, but well worth the effort, for as they reach the top step and their face bathes in light, they are moved, some to tears.” (Read more)