Mykonos Biennale Orphic Mysteries

Video Graffiti

Official Film Selection

A Quiet Thriller

dir. by Alessandra La Bella, Germany
runtime: 10 min

Why when we find our selfs in strange situations we choose not to follow our instincts? How much responsibility do we carry in the fulfillment of our destiny? There is a place where human will and destiny meet and collide, pulled like a tight thread it stretches over our perception and understanding of time. Human curiosity and the animalistic dance together in a slow dense rhythm where somehow naivety plays a silent but essential role.

A.I. Made Me Do It: Ophelia

dir. by Gioula Papadopoulou, Greece
runtime: 3 min

The work "AI made me do it: Ophelia" (2023) is an experimental video, made entirely with images created using the AI system Dalle-2 (OpenAI), with variations of one single image. The initial image was created by Dalle-2 using a text prompt asking the program to generate an Ophelia in the water with flowers. The rest of the images are variations of this first image, as created by the AI generator following different paths of variations each time. The sound was created by AI platform Melobytes, turning that same first image of Ophelia to sound. The final result is based on the randomness and fluidity of the AI generators used, leading to a surreal animation where a classic theme character (Ophelia) meets with weird dreamlike mutations and unexpected futuristic scenes. Ophelia changes identities, gender, attributes and constantly moves away from her stereotypical image and fate, in a fantasy world where everything is possible.

Bones

dir. by Anton Dushkin, Russian Federation
runtime: 4 min

Animated film in stop motion technique. X-rays are the main means of expression in the film. The pictures show what is usually hidden from our eyes, at the same time, it is inside every person. The x-ray seems to allow us to answer the frightening The question is, am I healthy? We are not able to interpret it on our own and surrender to the will of the doctors, while we ourselves can see in them both an imminent death and a miraculous healing. The picture is both a question and an answer. Unusual material requires a special attitude towards itself, encourages experimenting, combining with other materials, colors, and applying dynamics that are not typical for animation.

Boundary Of Time

dir. by Kevin Lucero Less, United States
runtime: 4 min

Where time begins...The beginning of forever. Why does time pass? The arrow of time from past to future only emerges when you take a step back from the microscopic world to the macroscopic – something first appreciated by the Austrian physicist-philosopher Ludwig Boltzmann. When you zoom in to the level of, say, one water molecule colliding and bouncing off another, the arrow of time disappears. If you watched a microscopic video of that collision and then you rewound it, it wouldn’t be obvious which way was forwards and which backwards. At the very smallest scale, the phenomenon that produces heat – collisions of molecules – is time-symmetric. Entropy only ever increases, never decreases - heat never flows from a cold body to a hot one. Time is the beginning of forever - forever is the beginning of time.

D.E.U.S.

dir. by Irida Polychroni, Panayiotis Lamprou, Argentina
runtime: 7 min

The DIS- video is a key component of my main diploma project, where I examine the concept of dissociation. The project is divided into three parts: "safety" focusing on the safe space one creates when faced with triggering events; "danger," which explores lingering threats within that safe space and "uncertainty," delving into the instability and confusion surrounding said notions of safety, danger, and ultimately self-identity.

Dignity S.O.S.

dir. by Gilveranio Riaño Zamora, Colombia
runtime: 5 min

DIGNITY S.O.S. Project product of a research laboratory in creation and pedagogy for social development of artistic thought, personal dignity and the dignity of others, experimental video art, from the life experience of the author in the armed conflict and his visions of the sad reality of a country mired in corruption, the abandonment of artists, cultural managers and their families, devalued and ignored before their rights, the problems of dignity at work and economic stability to survive, invisible victims of the multiple reflections and consequences of violence and human rights in Colombia. carried out between 2008-2023 in Villavicencio, Meta.

Dis-

dir. by Fotini Charatsi, Argentina
runtime: 1 min

The DIS- video is a key component of my main diploma project, where I examine the concept of dissociation. The project is divided into three parts: "safety" focusing on the safe space one creates when faced with triggering events; "danger," which explores lingering threats within that safe space and "uncertainty," delving into the instability and confusion surrounding said notions of safety, danger, and ultimately self-identity.

Darker Than Black

dir. by Hassan Mokhtari, Iran, Islamic Republic of
runtime: 1 min

Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.

Demi-Goddesses

dir. by Martin Gerigk, Germany
runtime: 8 min

‘Demi-Goddesses’ is the second essay about still dominant dark aspects of our modern society. It is conceived as a surreal anti-patriarchal thought experiment and raises important questions about gender, power, and social change, prompting us to reflect on how historical patterns of discrimination and oppression might be either repeated or overcome in a reversed gendered world. It challenges the viewer to confront their own assumptions and biases, and to consider the possibilities of a more equitable society. Overall, the intention of the film is that it will spark conversations and inspire the viewer to imagine a world where gender is not a limiting factor. At best, the audience will leave the theater with a greater awareness of the issues and a sense of possibility for a just future.

Fight

dir. by Maryam Shams, Iran, Islamic Republic of
runtime: 3 min

Flux Surreal

dir. by Ebba Jahn, Germany
runtime: 9 min

Flux Surreal | HD 8 min., 2023 Proposed by the new Monk Film Festival in Italy, Ebba Jahn took the opportunity to choose one of the suggested music works to make a video with - it is "La scalata" by Nello Toscano who plays the cello here and mixed it with additional man-made sounds. Someone on the move through "lost places" came to her mind, so she worked with collages by Stefania Buzatu to create this flux of sur-real experience, with images of a surrealism that grew within its existence of 100 years now. Nello Toscano: In fact, the steps and breathing were recorded during a climb on the crater of Etna and the cello was recorded afterwards. The meaning of the (music) piece is twofold and therefore represents a real climb on the volcano but also the effort to reach a goal that escapes you and, philosophically, 'the existential effort of becoming'.

Lines Of Touch

dir. by Paula Marien, Germany
runtime: 5 min

Two white lines move towards each other and when they meet, tentatively, fingers and arms that touch each other become visible. The lines become longer, more complex and emerge into figures, that explore the boundaries of physical touch. They hug, shake hands, stroke over a shoulder, multiply or overlay, while a soundscape arises that accompanies the body contact, but also brings its own ideas and goes into a relationship with the visual image.

Lost Aisles

dir. by Aloni Yuli, Greece
runtime: 3 min

The DIS- video is a key component of my main diploma project, where I examine the concept of dissociation. The project is divided into three parts: "safety" focusing on the safe space one creates when faced with triggering events; "danger," which explores lingering threats within that safe space and "uncertainty," delving into the instability and confusion surrounding said notions of safety, danger, and ultimately self-identity.

Merry-Go-Round On The Street

dir. by Jaeik Kim, Korea, Republic of
runtime: 6 min

We live with daily disillusionment that is generated as our village life becomes more formalized and village streets turn into urban ones with repetitive patterns of lifestyle. To escape such disillusionment, an old and worn amusement park can be regarded as a temporary shelter of the mind, and this video work is to record short and long times of disillusionment, based on the merry-go-round shot for 24 hours straight. On a terrain clearly exposed as unpaved, there used to be flowers and trees everywhere, and people walked around freely. Over the past decades, unstructured land and informal neighborhoods have become dense with urban streets in a defenseless state, and the surface of land is filled with such tension and silence that we lose all sense of direction. While hovering around on the surface, we find ourselves going back to square one from time to time, like a merry-go-round. No matter if we are either walkers or performers while wandering about streets, we may have both senses of unfamiliarity and familiarity from our experience of various kinds of streets. Such a hybrid culture and community we face between cut-off streets come across mind like an organic whole, but they will keep tearing down and building up over and over. A particular moment felt as a milestone of time is merely a part of such process. It is because memories of senses divided in detail, not as a single identity, will be what we are able to feel at present only. Repetitive patterns of life we face along the circular road will be like light and shadow filled with tension and anxiety from the present point of view, and looking back on the space, we may find it similar to a merry-go-round on the circular street. Even at present, many of us still start walking or running along the Moebius strip-like road. All the conditions of this road are reflected on our breathtaking life on this land, and memories of time split on the space will start and end on the very circular land. *Method of Expression Both audio and video will be repeated infinitely in the frame through creation and extinction. At the same time, unknown shapes and lines exposed by time will be faced with tension and anxiety that can be felt on the circular land.

Motus

dir. by Nelson Fernandes, Portugal
runtime: 5 min

Motus: a body in motion. A stop-motion animation where conception, degradation and regeneration cohabit in a unique way. A creation on a metal sheet using ethanol as the raw material.

Mountain, Ghost, Sun, Umbrella

dir. by I-Chun Chen, Taiwan
runtime: 15 min

Night Ride From La

dir. by Martin Gerigk, Germany
runtime: 5 min

‘Night Ride from LA’ is based on a real car ride at night from downtown LA to the desert near Palm Springs a few years ago. The footage was taken from the car by continually shooting single long exposure photos to document the ride of about two hours without any break. This technique condensed the whole trip to a flickering twirl of time-stretched movements and night light graffiti causing a kind of psychedelic trance. A love letter to the energy and vibe of the Californian way of life.

Night For A Lost One

dir. by Nenad Obrad Nedeljkov, Serbia
runtime: 4 min

A video diptych, a part of the "Bounds" cycle. The audiovisual presentation follows the bird to its final and undefined outcome.

Phases - Malaspina

dir. by Ebba Jahn, Germany
runtime: 5 min

Art music video by Ebba Jahn | HD 5 min. 2023 We have created an art music video based on a proposed track by a film festival titled "Malaspina" by Raffaele Casarano, featuring Dhafer Youssef - oud, lyrics and voice. The visuals consist mainly of drawings by Dwayne Jahn, his 3rd art video. Tunesian jazz musician Dhafer Youssef's voice with Dwayne's recent Phases-Drawings are merging: "As a harmonious unison of heartfelt music, colorful drawings and serene film, PHASES touches upon themes of what we go through in life around the world when we introspect and let go. This video can be considered an abstracted representation of personal balance and the ongoing search for improvement". - Dwayne Jahn.

Radicalized

dir. by Jeannette Schwager, Canada
runtime: 4 min

Short impressionistic anti-war film to accompany the music of the Opera of the Unspoken, an ancestral experimental opera about WWII in Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies. This song reflects the fate of my civilian German grandfather, unfairly interned by the Dutch, then killed by radicals in East Java as he tried to find his way back to his Javanese wife and mixed race children after the war had ended. The lyrics reflect the chaos, confusion and danger of the time, with details patched together using psychic dreamwork. Archival war footage and a few family photos are edited with special effects into a rhythmic, dream-like reflection of the central poem, reminiscent of gum bichromate photography. A creative work to address ancestral trauma in our family dna.

Sea Of Problems

dir. by Dani Micóids, Brazil
runtime: 2 min

“Sea of Problems" is an animation that criticizes the consequences of voracious capitalism. The story portrays the solitary struggle of a fisherman in a world where corporate greed and environmental negligence have led to an unprecedented ecological disaster, questioning the devastating impacts of human activity on the environment and its consequences for the survival of marine life and humanity.

Sea Of Stars

dir. by Robin L. Bisio, United States
runtime: 3 min

Moths are night pollinators, navigating by the stars and moon. In Sea of Stars, we honor this journey into darkened skies as Paige Amicon explores a secret world of cultivation.

Simulakrum

dir. by Vera Sebert, Austria
runtime: 5 min

Simulacrum: the mirage, the illusion, the façade, the appearance; from Latin simulacrum: the image, the likeness, the effigy, the replica, the structure, the statue, the image of the gods, the image pillar, the dream image, the shadow, the ghost; The sound provides the impulse for the movement of abstracted geometric triangular forms that are in a perpetual process of transformation.

Stick No Bills

dir. by Ebba Jahn, Germany
runtime: 2 min

To me it is a photo video monostich - made of 20 year old photos photographed in Kochi, Kerala by architect and culture historian Klaus Kürvers, who is also playing the double bass with clarinetist Willy Springer for this soundtrack. A one line poem is called monostich - here the line is repeated in variations forming a video poem.

The Light Of Reason

dir. by Miguel Mariano, Portugal
runtime: 7 min

A multidisciplinary proposal that merges dance, performance, sound and aesthetic architecture. A battle of egos in a plastic mobility in which the collective immaterial is, despite everything, the main driving force. Conducted by a mediation, which first analyses and only then intervenes, there is initially a celebration of the cult of the "I", and then this proposal falls under the human capacity, to reflect, share and accept that life is an intertwined commitment of a collective union for the growth of all in that same union.

The Man Who Eats Flowers

dir. by Tampasouli Eirini, Greece
runtime: 1 min

The Mind's Egg

dir. by Maria Korporal, Germany
runtime: 3 min

The metaphore the mind's egg refers to some of the highly estimated potentialities of the human mind that we know as creativity, innovation, and originality. Just like an egg contains the genetic material and nutrients necessary for the growth of a new organism, the mind's egg contains the ideas and fundamentals, knowledge and experiences that may give birth to inventions, new insights or new art forms. I had these ideas in mind when I began working on this video. I started with a 3D animated egg and then continued with an animated chalk drawing on a blackboard. The drawn figures seem to come out of the egg, but at the same time they nest the egg in a protected environment. When the drawing is completed, the egg and the figures undergo a transformation. The result is a dynamic digital microcosmos. To add a commentary on this evolution I consulted an artificial intelligence nonetheless capable of expressing ideas and thoughts. I prompted ChatGPT of OpenAI to write a short poem about The Mind's Egg. After several unsuccessful attempts, it produced the following poem: Nest the mind Mind the nest Where thoughts take flight And dreams can rest. I thought the verses were appropriate to end the video with.

The Naked Soul

dir. by Krochmalny Syd, Argentina
runtime: 16 min

1. In the time of Cronus and in the reign of Zeus, there was a law according to which men and women who had lived just and pious lives were sent on their deaths to the Isle of the Blessed to live in perfect happiness; in contrast, those who had lived unjust and impious lives were confined to Tartarus, prison of unending expiation, punishment and grief. As so often even with the best laid plans, there were problems: judgment was often defective and the dead were sent to the wrong place. In response to calls by Pluto and by the guardians of the Island of the Blessed, Zeus took a key decision to guarantee the justice of deci- sions as to the final destination of humans after death: ‘I shall put a stop to this. At the moment the judgments are not well given, because the persons who are judged have their clothes on, for they are alive; and there are many who, having evil souls, are apparelled in fair bodies, or encased in wealth or rank, and when the day of judgement arrives, numerous witnesses come forward and testify on their behalf that they have lived righteously. The judges are awed by them, and they themselves also have their clothes on when judging; their eyes and ears and their whole bodies are interposed as a veil before their own souls. All this is a hindrance to them. Their clothes, and those of the judged, are the obstacles that hinder justice. What is to be done? In the first place, I will deprive human be- ings of the foreknowledge of death, which they possess at present. In the second place, they shall entirely stripped before they are judged, for they shall be judged when they are dead; and the judge too shall be naked, that is to say, dead. For justice to be done, let the judges only employ their souls to examine the souls of others immediately after their death, when separated from all family and after leaving all possessions behind on Earth’.2 The mythic, poetic and visual potential of this image is strong: naked and dead, Minos, Radamanthys and Aeacus, sons of Zeus and the three judges of the dead in Hades, judged the naked and dead, whose souls were sent according to the just or unjust lives they had led to the Isle of the Blessed or to Tartarus respectively. One of the most interesting aspects of this myth, with which Plato closes the Gorgias, is the idea of clothing as an obstacle to judgement as to a person’s moral condition – whether just or unjust, pious or impious. In the first instance, The Naked Soul may be seen as an attempt to reconstruct this image obsessively. By means of a ‘work against the current times’ (Nietzsche), Syd Krochmalny appropriates, deconstructs and reconstructs this image in order to realise a contemporary reworking of the Platonic myth in the image of the English activist, Stephen Gough: in it, the latter becomes the judge who will judge us and our clothes, in the wake of his solitary crusade across the British mainland. Krochmalny fashions the Gorgias into a logos with which to think through the question of nakedness, and more specifically, the physical, epistemic, political and legal discomfort, that nakedness produces in the onlooker. 2. Nakedness reveals all the contours inscribed on our bodies over the course of our lives: folds, wrinkles, wounds, scars, cares, illnesses. All is visible: the crooked and the straight; the noble and the base. What is it that clothing conceals? The imprint of the soul on a naked body and the imprint of a body on a naked soul. Letting the veil of clothing fall reveals all the marks left by our behaviours and actions. In The Naked Soul, clothing becomes a physical and spiritual obstacle to the ends of sociability and free movement, and to the rediscovery of our most primitive self-determination and liberty. 3. Our appreciation of Stephen Gough’s act reveals the prison of our own habits and customs, while, at the same time, reinforcing the pristine liberty of his own being. His crusade for nakedness gathers force with each viewing. From this tension emerges his care of self. In this sense, The Naked Soul extends Stephen Gough’s gesture. For, among other things, the idea is to sow the idea of nakedness in the mind of the spectator (...)

Thread Threat

dir. by Konstantina Sofokleous, Cyprus
runtime: 2 min

Wholly filmed on top of a doll silhouette, an interpretation of the 1810 Grimm handwritten manuscript of 'Snow White'*, concentrating on the cruelty of Snow White's biological mother. TECHNIQUE Thread used like coloured pencils to 'translate' my drawing lines with a new material. Special thanks to the Aardman Academy. *1810 #43. 'Schneeweisschen. Schneewittchen. Unlucky Child'

To Find You

dir. by Chantal Paula Rosengurt, Argentina
runtime: 5 min

A woman undertakes the journey of her life on a barge alone at sea, in search of her love. There she will have to confront her deepest fears to the point that she will have to completely transform herself to get ahead between life, death and fantasy.

Trying To Remember

dir. by Rani Deighe Crowe, United States
runtime: 4 min

An experimental film created by layering and repeating 16 mm film footage created from Cyanotype, home office printing, and stamping and scratching and drawing on the film. Trying to remember the self through far away memory and unclear thoughts and during the extreme isolation of 2020.

When I Was The Moon

dir. by Gioula Papadopoulou, Greece
runtime: 6 min

“When I was the moon” is a single channel video which follows a surrealistic & subversive journey of the moon in familiar and plain landscapes. What happens when the moon gets autonomous, escapes its eternal trajectory and follows a different path visiting the earth? A symbol of light and darkness at the same time, interwoven with romance, love, but also with the chthonic deities and magical powers, the moon, bright and seductive, has always attracted special attention from all people around the world. Its movement in the sky is a bright thread that connects us all and immerse us in a global magic. It has been said since ancient times that witches had the power to influence the movement of the moon and bring it down to earth. In "When I Was the Moon", the moon becomes autonomous, descends to earth and wanders into familiar landscapes in a magical journey, an adventure that repeats itself forever, bouncing softly between the mountain tops and the sea. The video follows the movement of the moon in seven peaceful landscapes. What happens in the end leads to a new beginning.

Wonders Of The Invisible. A World You Have Never Seen Before

dir. by Iker Duro Linares, Spain
runtime: 5 min

Right in front of us, invisible to the naked eye, there is a hidden world teeming with life. A world inhabited by beings whose shapes, colors and way of life surely will surprise those who see it for the first time. They are present in each and every corner of the planet. They are tiny, almost invisible. Immerse yourself into a world you have never seen before.

Reforma

dir. by Gabriela Jung, Brazil
runtime: 7 min

‘Reforma’ is a videodance by Gabriela Jung created experimentally, deconstructing scenes presented by Ricardo Aparecido Silva in his dance research process, where he punctuates gestures and layers of movement in a process of changes and discontinuities. It is a reconstruction and composition from other perspectives and points of view that open up in the relationship between dance and audiovisual. ‘Reforma’ é uma videodança de Gabriela Jung criada experimentalmente, desconstruindo cenas apresentadas por Ricardo Aparecido Silva em seu processo de pesquisa em dança, onde pontua gestos e camadas de movimento num processo de mudanças e descontinuidades. É uma reconstrução e composição a partir de outras perspectivas e pontos de vista que se abrem na relação da dança e do audiovisual.

Self-Portrait

dir. by Nacho Recio, Spain
runtime: 4 min

'Self Portrait' is presented as an awakening into the unknown, as an attempt to reach new emotional and sensory levels.

Shadows Of A Radio In The East

dir. by Nacho Recio, Spain
runtime: 1 min

'Shadows of a Radio in the East', recorded with a mobile phone, is presented as an audiovisual experimentation in the context of a Berlin still overshadowed by a dense and uncertain past.

Φωσ ( Light) Upon Poseidon’S Temple

dir. by Tassos Fytros, Manos Arvanitakis, Greece
runtime: 3 min

The temple of Poseidon, one of the most renown treasures of Greek civilization, presented and filmed as never done before, illuminated by drone lights during a summer full moon night. No CGI not even VFX, illuminated from real drone lights, motivated from our Greek treasures, filmed from people with vision to share their different light perspective, filming such a special monument with this unique technique.