KÜSTRIN-KIEZ

Das Unfassbare/inconceivable,
Gallery 2YK, Berlin, Germany

Filmed in Kustrin, on the border between Poland and Germany, a bird, which had flown into a cord and strangled itself. The video shows, in slow-motion and in digitally manipuated colours, the final seconds of the bird´s life, its flapping wings are its last attempts to escape. The terrifying effect of the film lies not only in the compelling subject matter, but also in the ambivalence it causes in viewer. As the bird comes closer to death, its movements become slower and slower, the impression of a kind of dignity, majesty and beauty becomes stronger.
It is this conflict between the aesthetical perception and our moral reponse to the image of the dying bird that can produce a feeling of aversion in us. We refuse to accept, that this being gains beauty while losing its life. To receive an image as beautiful, while at the same time acknowledging that the content is utterly grusome, goes against received concept of aesthetice and ethics.
(Leonhard Emmerling)

Music by múm.