Borderlife, by social artist Biancoshock

"If some problems can not be avoided, make them comfortable.
Intervention that, parodically, speaks about people forced to live in extreme conditions, even coming to live in manholes.
An example of inspiration is  Bucharest, where more than 600 people live underground, in the sewers."

Biancoshock

 

Borderlife is a series of outdoor installation works by artist Biancoshosck. They are reappropriated manholes made to look like inhabitated spaces. The scale and detail make the work appear bizarre, but there is a serious message behind the works, drawing attention to living conditions, particularly the issue of hundreds of people living in the sewers of Bucharest.

Biancoshock (2016) Borderlife. http://www.biancoshock.com/borderlife.html

A story of isolation, in three parts.

These are sketches for a narrative which I would like to create in the form of a short film.

As I've worked on my project, I have found myself feeling that it is running away from me a little, and so I wish to reign it in by keeping the subject matter more personal and more focused. My idea of creating multiple dwellings and creating a vast cityscape started to feel a little overwhelming and I became worried that it was more of great sociological study and less concerned about people as individuals.

Reflecting on my practice and my working methods, I realised that I become more enthusiastic about personal stories, and about the plight of individuals. I am still intent on investigating the subject of urban living of the future, but I prefer to focus it through small, particular situations and events.

This is why my project has changed direction. Looking back on my notes has led me to writing a script for a short film. It is about a man who increasingly isolates himself from the world into ever decreasing spaces, while still attempting to live a normal life and have a relationship. The sketches and scenario are below.

 

Short Film

ECU of an electric screwdriver screwing into a wall.

CU of man’s face as he concentrates, finishes, and steps back. A light from above shines on his face

and he looks up.

CU from below looking up of a small square skylight. We can see the moon. Snow begins to fall.

MS. The man stands in a tiny room which becomes darker as the snow settles on the skylight above,

blocking the only source of light. He immediately reaches down to a lamp and turns it on, then sits

down in a small armchair wedged in the corner of the room. He picks up a book from a table by his

arm and begins to read.

Camera pans across and around room 360degrees, revealing possessions on tables/shelves: books,

crockery, bedlinen, radio, pictures, writing materials etc. We notice that the only door has been

permanently boarded up.

CU of the bulb in the lamp fizzing out.

CU of man’s face, very dimly lit by whatever moonlight can still make it through the skylight.

Fade out.

Fade in.

CU of man’s face, lit by warm light. He moves towards camera and out of focus.

MS through doorway of apartment. Man moves past, along corridor. He is sitting in a large box on

wheels with only his head visible from the top. He moves out of shot. There is the sound of electric

wheels and cogs turning. He reappears, and waits in kitchen doorway looking in.

CU of toaster.

ECU of man’s hand, inside box, moving a switch.

CU of toast popping out of the toaster.

CU of the man smiling. His eyes look across.

CU of the hob, a coffee pot on one of the electric rings. Camera pans across to the knob, which turns

by itself.

Cut to CU of man’s face looking straight on as he munches (presumably toast). He finishes, and his

eyes look sideways. A woman’s hand, holding a napkin, appears and dabs his chin.

CU of his hand inside the box as he flicks some other switches.

Ms. We can see that the woman’s hand is in fact a fake hand, attached to retractable device, like

that of a shaving mirror but much longer, which moves the hand back into a hole in the wall, which

is then covered by a painting.

Fade to black.

Fade in.

LS of a park. The man, still in his box with wheels, moves clumsily down a path.

MS. Man facing camera. He stops as he sees something.

CU of a woman looking at him, her head protruding from a similar box.

MS. We see the whole of the box the woman is in.

CU of the man’s face. He looks a little embarrassed, nervous. He looks as if he is about to smile.

Cut to black.

Fade in.

CU. Man’s face. He is lying down. Shot from above. He is on some kind of bed but there is a wall

directly on either side. He turns his head to one side. The wall he faces has a round attachment with

holes and looks a bit like a speaker. He hesitates.

ECU. He whispers ‘I love you’. We don’t hear him, but we can read his lips clearly.

CU. Camera shooting down from above pans across ‘through’ the wall and along wires and cables,

sparks, switches, electrical noises etc into darkness. It then fades into a ‘speaker’ in another wall.

CU of speaker. A robotic voice says ‘I love you’.

The camera pulls out to reveal the woman, also lying down in a tiny space. She turns her head away

from the speaker and smiles.

MS (from above) The man lying in the narrow confined space. He finishes eating something, staring

ahead absent-mindedly. He picks up a glass of water next to him.

MS from the side. We realise the space he is in is like a tunnel. He moves his head up as much as he

can to take a sip of water. Puts it down. Switches off the light.

He then shuffles himself along in the direction of his feet until his whole body slides downwards into

another equally confined space. Here he reaches for a blanket, all the time remaining lying down,

and covers himself, ready to sleep. He moves himself a little to get comfortable, before reaching for

a cord and turning off the light.

Black.

The End.

The Exterminating Angel by Luis Bunuel

I am a great admirer of Luis Bunuel’s work, and this is one of my favourite films.

The film is about a dinner party set in a grand house where, after their meal, the elegant and sophisticated guests are, for no explicable reason unable to leave the drawing room.

The logic of the story decrees that nothing physical or psychological is keeping each guest from simply leaving the room. They are just unable to leave, and that is that.

Gradually, the guests become dishevelled, both in their physical appearance and their manners, until we are witness to their basest instincts and unrefined characters.

What I like about Bunuel’s films, in particular this one and two subsequent ones Belle de Jour and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, is his perfection in creating surreal happenings in otherwise normal circumstances. Of course it can be argued that surrealism, like dream logic, only works when it has a basis in reality. Bunuel’s recurring themes: class, society, religion, sex, work perfectly in his surrealist  domain because they are exactly the types of subjects which prey on people’s psyche. They are subjects which propel people to act in the way they do, as well as to confound both their conscious and subconscious.

The Exterminating Angel works well for me because we are presented with how people behave in a situation over which they have no power. We scratch under the surface, and we force people together, not unlike JG Ballard’s High Rise, for such a time until they are no longer able to continue with their pretences, and their human survival instinct comes to the fore.

The ‘deadpan absurdity’ Bunuel does so well is what I want to use in my work in order to get my message across. I feel it can bring out both the sadness and humour from the subject of isolation and modern-day living.

El ángel exterminador (The Exterminating Angel) (1962) Directed by Luis Bunuel [Film]. Mexico:  Producciones Gustavo Alatriste