Holding Clouds

Pathirane Sara

Holding Clouds depicts a choreography on Huangshan, the Yellow Mountain in China. The mount Huang is famous from the old Chinese shan shui – mountain-water ink paintings. Still now the landscape gathers people to witness it. The view itself is often covered in clouds, only a peak of a mountain hovering in the sight. Still a thousand photos are taken there every day. People pose for photos in front of the landscape. The rythm of the visitors’ gestures, the reaching out, pointing, holding the air and touching the mountains formulates a choreography for the mountain. Chilean composer Fernando Munizaga’s piece Mi última palabra china (My last Chinese word) binds the poses into a broken language, an attempt to get hold of tones and diftongs hidden in the grayscale of the moving clouds. The music is based on discoveries Munizaga made in the field of phonetic analysis of Mandarin language. There is a constant movement, with rather simple materials and gestures.  

Production Year
2018
Duration
00:09:40
Tyyppi
Asiasana
Original Title
Holding Clouds
Finnish Title

Pilvien kannattelijat

English Title

Holding Clouds

Production Countries
Finland,China
Dialogue
No
Sound
Yes
Cast
Sara Pathirane (Author), Henrik Amberla (Cinematographer), Sara Pathirane (Cinematographer), Fernando Munizaga (Composer), Sara Pathirane (Director), Sara Pathirane (Editor), Sara Pathirane (Producer), Sara Pathirane (Script), Fernando Munizaga (Sound Design), Taiteen edistämiskeskus (Funder), Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo / AVEK (Funder)
Press Photos

Sara Pathirane

Born: 1985

Sara Pathirane’s work deals with the tradition of landscape painting and the problematics of taking a picture. As shooting locations for her videos she uses nature areas known from movies and paintings, shifting between the everyday and the fiction. She works with video, painting and live-installations. Pathirane lives and works in Helsinki. She has studied in the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and Accademia Albertina in Torino. Her works have been shown for example at Taiga-Space, Saint-Petersburg (2016), Colombo Art Biennale (2016) and Kiasma (2010, 2013).