I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS I AM LIKE
Dir. Bill Viola | USA | 1986 | 89 min | English | subtitles in Lithuanian
SKALVIJA: December 5th and December 7th
The title I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like is taken from the Rig-Veda, the sacred Hinduist text, that defines a procession from birth and consciousness to transcendent reality ‘beyond the laws of physics’. Video artist Bill Viola, in this film, created during a residency at the San Diego Zoo, explores the possibility to transcend the constraints of self-knowledge and uses observation and visual metaphors to achieve the goal. In five parts we are moved from observation of animals, through the animals’ gaze towards human, to the artist’s self-observation in his studio.
“According to Viola himself, this film is a ‘personal investigation of the inner states and connections to animal consciousness we all carry within’. The goal to see through the eyes of an animal is as impossible to achieve, as entering someone else’s consciousness. It is hard to imagine what kind of tool that would require. But the tools are what people use to achieve even intangible and spiritual goals. In this case, the camera is the artist’s tool to unlock the animal gaze in oneself, and with it comes the method of observing and being observed. It is one of the most striking and perception expanding meditations I have recently experienced.”
– Ignė Smilingytė
Image courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
