The Camera is present
From object to subject
The film shows a tourist’s gaze of the environment; streets, architecture, people, demonstrations, musicians, safari parks and outdoor theaters. From hours of footage a few sequences are chosen; those where the object being filmed is unaware at first, but then catches sight of the camera and thus goes from being object to subject. The ‘unaware’ sequences are shown in black and white and at normal speed. When permissions change through someone’s gaze at the camera, the film becomes color, and the speed is reduced.
”The Camera is present” started as a project within the collaborative project ”Carousell”, which is a group consisting of the artists Felice Hapetzeder (SE), Henrik Lund Jørgensen (SE/DK), Kristina Kvalvik (DK/NO) and Marit Lindberg (SE). Carousell started when the four artists discovered that they were all archiving video footage that was important to them in some way, but which had never come to use. The group decided to test what could happen if they handed over the material to each other within the group. Through the process, they wanted to see if the method of taking over someone else’s material could provide a distance and thus a new view, but also create the challenge of seeing through another artist’s eye.
