film and 4 channel video installation, 2021
The film is an intimate story about separation that took place in Split, the city from which the author hails. An analogy is made between the city of Split (in Eng. “to split – to separate”) and the parting of the ways between two people.
December 2019: the blue of the Mediterranean sea is beautiful but disturbing, a desolately empty road that leads apparently nowhere is filmed at night illuminated only by the electric lights of the street lamps, the pandemic is at the gates of our life and Zagreb has been mortally wounded by the earthquake. The separation is told through the emptiness of images where there are no human presences, everything seems motionless and frozen as if suffering had also permeated the landscape. The ancient streets of Split and the stone facades of its crumbling buildings, memories of a glorious past, are the silent spectators of a private drama. The images, intense and pictorial, tell of an emptiness, a tear, a lack and the desolate beauty of the ancient stone walls of the city become the indifferent witnesses of the end of a love that cannot overcome the trauma of change.
Split is the key word for all the video projects conceived by Renata Poljak as all the four videos have in their core the trauma of a loss, of a separation of a void.
Trailer:
Technical parameters 4 channel video installation Split
Four videos will be installed with a sculptural setting conceived by the croatian architect firm Dinko Peračić, as if the images seem to be floating in the dark space. Each video projections will be oriented towards one of the corners of the exhibition room, creating separate intimate ambients for encounter with the works. Four videos – four spaces in one room. Large back projections enable the physical closeness of the visitors with the projections and therefore an immersive experience. Gaps between projections will be covered with translucent fabric, hiding projectors and construction, but also reflecting other back screened videos. A blurred and low intensity mix of moving colours and shapes will give sense of connection between the works, making the audience aware while watching one video, that it belongs to a wider story. The sound of the video will be enabled by using overhead directed loudspeakers, which will reduce the audio interference between the works.
Main construction will be made out of standard light aluminium rectangular profiles that support screens, frames that hold the translucent fabric, projectors and players.
It will be mostly self-standing on the floor. Loudspeakers will be hanging from the ceiling.