7' color and sound, 2020
Introduced by Manuela Cabrales
Love’s Alternation (2020) is a 7 minutes, color and sound, single-channel video by Léa Colombier which depicts what would be a love relationship in a post-apocalyptic world. The science fiction film takes place in an environment that does not yet exist, deprived of any kind of living thing except that of the humans and the parasites. Thereupon, the video narrates how humans fall in love with parasites as the ultimate relationship between humans and animals in a world totally deserted.
MC : The video starts giving the viewer the sense of a place, the Earth totally desolated, with a background voice that says repeatedly “ your landscape looks like shit, everything I can see looks like shit ”. Then we listen to the same voice asking “ what are you people doing to compensate ? ”.
Who is this external figure that is watching the planet from the outside? And how is this first part of the video related to the society of today ?
Who is this external figure that is watching the planet from the outside? And how is this first part of the video related to the society of today ?
LC : This video offers a poetic experience that resonates with contemporary preoccupations around the notion of an apocalyptic anticipation and the survival of our relationship with nature.
There is an unknown external figure, that we do not know who is but that however allows us to become aware of a deserted land, that refers to the Anthropocene : the geological age where humans are the dominant influence in the course of nature. The only inhabitants who remained in this deserted world are humans and parasites that decided to opt for a new form of love due to the lack of options for getting closer to the nature that remains.
Traveling through strange environments, there is this notion that loneliness is a social phenomenon in our present society. As well as dealing with the problem of resilience, survival, in relation to the world and to our relationship towards nature. How to deal with the loneliness on a ravaged land is one of the issues that the video aims to show.
There is an unknown external figure, that we do not know who is but that however allows us to become aware of a deserted land, that refers to the Anthropocene : the geological age where humans are the dominant influence in the course of nature. The only inhabitants who remained in this deserted world are humans and parasites that decided to opt for a new form of love due to the lack of options for getting closer to the nature that remains.
Traveling through strange environments, there is this notion that loneliness is a social phenomenon in our present society. As well as dealing with the problem of resilience, survival, in relation to the world and to our relationship towards nature. How to deal with the loneliness on a ravaged land is one of the issues that the video aims to show.
MC : The time passing in your video reflects the growing love affair between parasites and humans. We see this transition through the voices of people that are giving their testimonies similarly to the ones given in a documentary or a medical appointment. Why did you choose this specific testimonial style to transmit the passage of time ?
LC : Mysterious narrators accompany us during the scenes, we don’t really know who they are, what we know is that they are some of the last living things that remain in a desolate world. There are voices of different people narrating how they fell in love with parasites. The narrations are full of a melancholic beauty, remembering the world of the past and at the same time knowing that to fall in love with parasites is a matter of life or death. In order to better observe their behaviors and interactions, the parasite, in the end, becomes a prosopopoeia. A hybrid film that ecologically questions our world, and the main human state of feeling, which is love. There are different sounds, voices, that finally represent a single common voice. The voices aim to represent the two possible states of humans in this world: the one who is already in love with the parasite, which took the decision to live, and love, and the other, who is still observing and moving around the desert planet, asking about the concerns of the last inhabitants:
“ What new form of love, of life, is possible ? ”
“ What new form of love, of life, is possible ? ”
MC : A whole compilation of images and sounds compose the environments of your video, some created by you and others appropriated for the video’s sake. How was the collection and selection of all these materials ?
LC : I've done a lot of research. Almost all the images are from French television archives. For the colleges I selected several images from art books, which I digitally re-organize. All of this in order to create a digital landscape that served as the video’s background and atmosphere. In one part there is also a white character walking on the deserted land, I created this character in a program that imitated my movements and reflected them on the character.
Regarding the sound, I had created a continuous background of sound, (apes calls, insects, etc.), which evoke the origin of the species, bringing us back to the starting point of humanity. I also recorded some voices for the interaction between humans and parasites. Everything together presents a diversity of experimental approaches, from digital animation and sound, to the simulation of a possible life where voices are mutating in an alternate world.
MC : It is evident that through the video you are showing a new correlation between animals and humans. But it is a relation based on destruction. Firstly, it takes place in a devastated world. Secondly, the love affair is based on how the parasites live within the human body and benefit from it by taking the nutrients of that person. This notion resonates with today’s climate change
situation, where we are demolishing natural resources that we need in order to live. In the video, you show the image of a tiger’s gaze and later the hands of a human holding an animal horn alluding to the animal black market.
Parallelly you also show a future without any living thing apart from humans and parasites. How do you perceive the ongoing present we live in relating to
the apocalyptic future of your video that is at the same time overlayered with nowadays images ?
Regarding the sound, I had created a continuous background of sound, (apes calls, insects, etc.), which evoke the origin of the species, bringing us back to the starting point of humanity. I also recorded some voices for the interaction between humans and parasites. Everything together presents a diversity of experimental approaches, from digital animation and sound, to the simulation of a possible life where voices are mutating in an alternate world.
MC : It is evident that through the video you are showing a new correlation between animals and humans. But it is a relation based on destruction. Firstly, it takes place in a devastated world. Secondly, the love affair is based on how the parasites live within the human body and benefit from it by taking the nutrients of that person. This notion resonates with today’s climate change
situation, where we are demolishing natural resources that we need in order to live. In the video, you show the image of a tiger’s gaze and later the hands of a human holding an animal horn alluding to the animal black market.
Parallelly you also show a future without any living thing apart from humans and parasites. How do you perceive the ongoing present we live in relating to
the apocalyptic future of your video that is at the same time overlayered with nowadays images ?
LC : This video is situated in that unlikely territory where fiction and reality contaminate and mutually enrich each other. It questions, through diverted means and modes, metaphors and poems, a world that exists.
Several images are intertwined, the ones of a time that no longer exists as melancholic scenes that evoke the time where tenderness and affection still existed in a very tactile way, a natural, palpable world. And the counterpart images show the evolution into isolated species and ecosystems in a hostile environment. Examples of images which reflect the melancholic past can be seen in these two scenes: the first in the part that we can see archives of people taking a tactile teaching course for blind people; and the second, images that show the sentimental state of people in love with parasites.
The video aims to question the ways of living, of inhabiting, of experiencing places, navigating between two worlds. The one where people continue to wander around a deserted land, questioning, and leaving only room for, and the others that decide to choose a solution to this phenomenon by finding new companions: parasites. The second option is where they try to find
an alternative way of life by starting everything over again, this is at the same time ironic since parasites also lead to an unfavorable outcome for the person's body. Finally, we are left in the world with something that is destructive.
The purpose of the journey that the video traces is to reflect on the present time by presenting a view on how the post-apocalyptic future can be.
Several images are intertwined, the ones of a time that no longer exists as melancholic scenes that evoke the time where tenderness and affection still existed in a very tactile way, a natural, palpable world. And the counterpart images show the evolution into isolated species and ecosystems in a hostile environment. Examples of images which reflect the melancholic past can be seen in these two scenes: the first in the part that we can see archives of people taking a tactile teaching course for blind people; and the second, images that show the sentimental state of people in love with parasites.
The video aims to question the ways of living, of inhabiting, of experiencing places, navigating between two worlds. The one where people continue to wander around a deserted land, questioning, and leaving only room for, and the others that decide to choose a solution to this phenomenon by finding new companions: parasites. The second option is where they try to find
an alternative way of life by starting everything over again, this is at the same time ironic since parasites also lead to an unfavorable outcome for the person's body. Finally, we are left in the world with something that is destructive.
The purpose of the journey that the video traces is to reflect on the present time by presenting a view on how the post-apocalyptic future can be.
MC : Is your video related to today’s situation of COVID-19 ?
LC : In a sense yes, during this period of confinement we are in an close environment where we have to deal with new problems, we are deprived of everything that can define what it is to be human, given that we are so used to our communication being established by touch, we are a very tactile and physical civilization, so here too, new propositions, alternatives have to be found.