A R C H I E F1 9 9 6  
.14
  Elio Gelmini
Borders
  Canada/Italy/Mexico 1995
Videotape, 5:48, colour & black-and-white, stereo
Inspiration is a wondrous thing. With fantasy and a vivid imagination you can splice anything together, develop the most fascinating intellectual panoramas. The start of this tape, which although short, contains four story lines, already creates a vague feeling of recognition for the cultural omnivore, which the viewer at the end of the twentieth century ought to be. That black and white fence along an untidy little field, I know that don’t I? Indeed, it later proves to be the spot where Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered. He is dead, but his influence lives on. The tension between life and oblivion is metaphorically commented upon by a lesbian couple making love behind a richly spread table or a parade of Zapatistas, soldiers who show their revolutionary enthusiasm by tying little white flags to their weapons. All power to the people, we automatically conclude. It is only later that some worldly wise cynicism penetrates through to the viewer, purified by newspapers and magazines. Even the introduction of a festive corrida where the traditionally clad toreador delivers ‘la puntilla’ to the bull speaks volumes. The conclusion is unavoidable: “I am the homosexual in San Francisco, the black in South Africa, the woman waiting on the metro after ten in the evening.”

Erik Daams

Art directorRiccardo Barcelo, Light Corey Mihailiuk, Editing Dennis Day, Elio Gelmini, Sound Dennis Day, Music Steven Brown, With Melinda Ramsey, Steven Brown, Jillian, Fernando Cortez, Production Ora et Labora


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