Video art and experimental films by Tuomas A. Laitinen and Mika Taanila are included in the third edition of OLHO, held in Cineteatro São Luiz, Fortaleza from 28.2.–1.3. and in the Cinemateca of Museu de Arte Moderna of Rio de Janeiro from 2.–4.3.

Founded in 2015 by Alessandra Bergamaschi and Vanina Saracino, OLHO is a curatorial project that explores the relationship between contemporary video artworks and the cinema. OLHO brings together, in carefully curated sequences, video works that rething the language of cinema. The third edition of OLHO aims at exploring a tentacular approach to thought, perception and knowledge through a selection of international video works belonging to the increasingly merging fields of experimental film, video art and expanded cinema.

Tuomas A. Laitinen‘s new video Dossier of Tentacular (2018) is included in the programme “Inter-Species Entanglement”

Dossier of Tentacular (2018) is a knotty and tragicomic organism that explores the techniques behind information production and dissemination, as well as ecological change and issues related to neoliberal language. The visual form of the work is reminiscent of a notebook whose pages become filled with pictures, diagrams and notes. The texts explore different ways to use language: one mode is like an expository lecture, while the other consists of poetic expressions created by an artificial intelligence that was whose source material is the collected works of Samuel Beckett.

Laitinen’s earlier video, The Powder of Sympathy (2015) will be screened in the programme “Living the Ruins”. Diving deep into the often obscure global flow of materials, in this instance copper, The Powder of Sympathy sets in motion a frantic flow of images combined with feverish pounding, hissing and rattling sounds sourced from West Africa, the USA and China. The healing properties of copper are juxtaposed with its conductive role in the development and continuity of electricity-dependent modern societies. It is a hypnotic journey to the material mediation of our existence.

Taanila: Optical Sound (2005)

Mika Taanila‘s Optical Sound (2005) is included in the screening “Enhanced Vision”. Obsolete office tools transform into musical instruments of the future. The film is based on The Symphony #2 for Dot Matrix Printers by [The User].

Taanila’s experimental short film The World (2017) will be screened in “Speculative Fabulation” programme. The World features The Man Who Fell to Earth (dir. Nicolas Roeg 1976) evacuated and flipped. In abandoned landscapes, animals, furniture and empty vehicles are left awaiting for disaster. ”We must have died alone, a long long time ago.” (D.B.)

OLHO III – Tentacular, 28.2.–4.3.2018, Fortaleza & Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

More information: OLHO III