Still: WHERE FROM HERE Performer/singer Dallas Ulla — Helsinki
WHERE FROM HERE by Lenore Malen and Samir Bhowmik http://samirbhowmik.cc/ was commissioned by the Finnish Cultural Institutes
to quickly respond to challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic: “a state of emergency, radical change, resilience and artistic practice in the future.”
https://www.fininst.uk/events/artist-lenore-malen-virtual-contact-represents-a-loss/
fhttps://www.togetheralonefi.com/
https://www.togetheralonefi.com/round-ii-selected-projects/where-from-here
It’s easier being in each other’s presence or in each other’s absence than in the constant presence of each other’s absence.
We sense too little and can’t imagine enough. Gianpiero Petriglieri
WHERE FROM HERE takes these dilemmas as possible openings and allusions into questioning the freedom of
the quarantined body and other bodies in this suspended state of the virtual. Addressing themes of virtuality in a pandemic and its origins in utopian dreams of globalization, we are presenting a
series of 6 intertwined short films with performances and monologues alternating between the backdrops
of Soho and Hudson NY and the Helsinki Archipelago: Vuossari, Jätkäsaari, Kruunuvuori, ]sites of oil extraction and mining.
This back-and-forth remote correspondence between us in May and June 2020 worked like a chain letter, constantly dependent on interpretation
and improvisation. The entire project will premiere in late summer/early autumn. My three films can be seen here.
The voice-over narration includes fragments of 19th and 20th century texts, a media prehistory by Georges Perec, Marshall McLuhan,
a letter from Orwell to Huxley, Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Descent into Maelstrom,” Nikolai Fedorov’s Manifesto on Russian Cosmism.
Actress: Jessica Weinstein, Voice: Lenore Malen, Camera: Lenore Malen, Editor: Paul Lieber — Produced, Written and Directed by Lenore Malen
