Unlearning
Film, DCP, 54min., 2021
Produced by Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains
Our interests and desires are produced and defined by our way of life. In order to develop the revolutionary desire to change society in its totality, one has to gain an understanding of our contemporary culture as already dead and musealized—a particular social form among other social forms. Such an understanding comes not so much from putting on the mask of past cultures, but rather from seeing the face of contemporary culture as a mask and comparing it to other masks. To do so, one must contemplate the cultural and social forms of the past. History teaches us that the culture in which we live is mortal, just like we are. We can anticipate the death of our culture just as we anticipate our own death. If we only look at our culture from the perspective of its origin in the past, we remain immersed in it, unable to see it as a form. This renders us incapable of revolution. But due to, let’s say, today’s apocalyptic anticipation of the death of culture, we can adjust our perspective to look not from the past and present into the future but instead from the future towards the present and the past.
Produced by Le Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains
Our interests and desires are produced and defined by our way of life. In order to develop the revolutionary desire to change society in its totality, one has to gain an understanding of our contemporary culture as already dead and musealized—a particular social form among other social forms. Such an understanding comes not so much from putting on the mask of past cultures, but rather from seeing the face of contemporary culture as a mask and comparing it to other masks. To do so, one must contemplate the cultural and social forms of the past. History teaches us that the culture in which we live is mortal, just like we are. We can anticipate the death of our culture just as we anticipate our own death. If we only look at our culture from the perspective of its origin in the past, we remain immersed in it, unable to see it as a form. This renders us incapable of revolution. But due to, let’s say, today’s apocalyptic anticipation of the death of culture, we can adjust our perspective to look not from the past and present into the future but instead from the future towards the present and the past.
Three souls who journeyed to a secluded sanctuary on the island of Ouessant, deliberately detaching themselves from the dominant narratives of contemporary culture. They come together as a tribe, a dynamic community driven by the quest for alternative modes of coexistence. Their collective goal unfolds: articulating their most intimate fears, confronting their inner demons, and contemplating the elusive concepts of time and existence.
The tribe's relentless quest for non-human rituals, where instincts take precedence and the masks of continuous sensory input dissolves under the sensors of pre-human trance movement, has become a transformative odyssey. During this journey, the boundaries between self and other, human and non-human, began to blur as they entered into a state of communion with the island itself.
