Disfigured Mermaids is part of the Ultramarine programme, curated by Ilona Jurkonytė
TRAILER
Gulf
Gulf was shot on the north shore of Cuba, looking towards the Gulf of Mexico, just months before a massive dead zone was created by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which leaked 4.9 million barrels of oil between April 20-July 15, 2010.
Wave patterns fill the frame, pulling apart the film strip itself.
Sirenomelia
In arctic waters, Sirenomelia is the link between the man, nature, and machine. Shot in a Cold War submarine base—transmitting white noise—it is a cosmic portrait of one of mankind’s oldest myths. In the words of philosopher Timothy Morton, ‘We’re all mermaids already, we just don’t know it yet.’
Juggernaut
Juggernaut (2009) depicts a new world of ideas, opportunities, new ways of living, with more conveniences and endless quests of forwardness. The gigantic apparatus that has been created by technology, utopian model cities that fail to function, Nasa space programme clips and Walt Disney propaganda cartoons from ’40s are the main focuses of the film.
No Shooting Stars
A muted voice travels from deep beneath the surface like an eruption. It speaks of its might and our disillusioned reality. It speaks of its ancestors, their ghosts and the cosplay games they play while conversing about the unreachable islands on an alien abducted moon.
Subatlantic
Appealing simultaneously to the various meanings of the term ‘Subatlantic’—a climatic phase beginning 2500 years ago, as well as the submerged regions of the Atlantic—Biemann immerses her camera deep in oceanic waters to ponder upon the entanglements of geological time with that of human history. As the voice-over speaks the accounts of a she-scientist traversing the pan-generational timescales of the Subatlantic, we navigate through the mental and ecological dimensions of the melting Arctic icescapes. The speculative video-essay interweaves vast cinematic landscapes with documentary footage, science fiction poetry and academic findings to narrate a changing planetary reality.