The video installation documents the approach to a foreign culture through the confrontation with Cuban everyday life and the Afro-Cuban religion that is firmly anchored in it. The important role of religious ceremony in human coexistence is as much a theme as the fusion of the present and ancestor worship. In Cuba, mystical rites and religious practices are ubiquitous. Cultic objects, devotional items and dances are encountered in the most unusual places. In Cuba, the boundary between everyday action and ritual is blurred, one’s own localization in the unknown, the accompanying uncertainty and misinterpretation are the starting point for this cinematic essay. Levels of reality overlap, everyday objects become metaphors, syncretism lulls westernized viewers into a false sense of security – … and then a completely unexpected situation occurs. The endless loop repeats mystical rituals and constantly struggles anew for an understanding that hopes for a parallel to one’s own socialization. The video installation CIRCULAR FLOWS documents the strangeness within, the intersection of the unspectacular Cuban everyday life with a cultic meaningfulness that transforms the monotonous daily routine into a magical and meaningful moment. 

 

Christine de la Garenne is a video artist based in Berlin. She completed her art studies at Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe and did postgraduate studies in media art studies at HfG Karlsruhe. The artist acts as an observer of  reality. In her large video projections she documents parts of everyday life by “dissecting” its details. The combination of aggressive and meditative tendencies provoke an irritating atmosphere. Subtle digital manipulations of visual and auditory aspects add multiple layers of perception and lead to a collapse of reality. Through minimal time shifts and endless repetitions the videos de- and reconstruct and show a polychronic approach to time. 

 

http://www.christinedelagarenne.de/