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film and video art
Duration: 00:20:56
CHRISTMAS ON EARTH is a cinematic ritual based on Van Gogh’s painting The Potato Eaters infused with Kurent’s paganic dance, mysterious Slovenian living mythic figure and ancient fertilty rite. The loud shaking of their bells the Kurent drive away the winter and evil spirits from the land, invite spring, good year, fertility and honors deceased relatives.
VISUALS, CAMERA, EDITING, DIRECTING : Janja Rakuš
SOUND EDITING : Janja Rakuš
OIL PAINTINGS : Vincent van Gogh: The Potato Eaters (1885), Head of Peasants (1885)
SOUND : Max Avery Lichtenstein, Multidimenasional archive, Boštjan Leskovšek, We Need Us
ARCHIVAL FOOTAGES : POND5
CONTACTS / LINKS : @JanjaRakus (facebook)
‘I want people to see that these rough handed individuals who toil the land have a relationship with it that is far more sacred than we imagine.’
-Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh was a painter of peasants, not because of their picturesqueness, but because of his deep compassion and solidarity with the poor people. The Potato Eaters, Vincent’s first masterpiece, belongs to the last days of feudalism, a time when the Industrial Revolution transformed Europe and caused increased urbanization and wide gap between social classes.
Painting elevates scenes from peasant dinners into religious ritual. The table is their altar, and the food is a sacrament. A potato represents not merely food but rather labor’s holy communion.
Bio
Janja Rakuš is an award winning visual and performing artist, filmmaker and writer. In 2008 she finished her MD of Performing Arts at DasArts in Amsterdam. Her work has been screened, translated and exhibited all around the Blue Globe, from Latin America,China, India to Rome, Tallinn, Porto, Amsterdam, Paris and Cannes where she received 1st AVIFF Cannes Award 2019 for her short film ALCHEMY ON THE AMSTEL(III).
Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved. Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.