ANIMUS ANIMALIS (A STORY ABOUT PEOPLE, ANIMALS AND THINGS) + NATURE: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Q&A with director of Animus Animalis (A Story about People, Animals and Things) Aistė Žegulytė
SKALVIJA: December 7th
ANIMUS ANIMALIS (A STORY ABOUT PEOPLE, ANIMALS AND THINGS)
Dir. Aistė Žegulytė | Lithuania | 2018 | 70 min | Lithuanian | subtitles in English
A taxidermist, a deer farmer and a museum worker live in the environment in which the line between reality and artificiality has become imperceptible. It's a world where not only deer and boars but also plastic alligator mannequins are being hunted, while stuffed animals compete for the most alive-looking posture and legitimate gaze. The most important exhibits are set up in fabricated nature's glass-case, sitting between aerosol-free trees and fake snow. Animals are looking from all the sides – dead or alive – they won't stop observing you.
“A need to control or possess nature – it's not clear whether this is an appendicitis of primal instincts or a condition of human dominance. And no matter how hard they try to win the battle, people admit: without nature, it is not OK. In a different manner, both films explore man's relationship with nature and death. Aistė Žegulytė's explorations of animals’ souls approach transcendental conclusions, while the Dutch artist Sebastian Mulder ironizes the futile human attempt to imbue this spirit into manufactured nature’s replicas. These extremely witty and apt films will not offer a salvation from the Sixth Mass Extinction, but leave insightful thoughts for contemplation about human’s role in it.”
– Aistė Račaitytė
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NATURE: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Dir. Sebastian Mulder | Netherlands | 2016 | 22 min | no dialogue
The film investigates the role of nature simulations in our modern society. The film shows how artificial nature meets the needs of today's city dwellers and where it still falls short compared to real nature. Various forms such as a romantic forest wallpaper, an indoor tropical island and phenomena such as artificial grass and stuffed animals, take the viewer into the world of this new kind of nature. Towards the end the film looks at the uncertain future, in which the arrival of new technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) will blur the lines between reality and illusion. Could artificial nature replace real nature?
