Everything was singing

Giuliana is the protagonist of Red Desert (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964), her existential anxieties predicated on the industrial landscape she inhabits. For his first colour film, Antonioni literally painted scenes to correspond with Giuliana’s psychology. Even those shots taken from a supposedly objective camera position are suffused with her phenomenological apprehension of her environment.

“Everything was singing” repurposes this footage to demonstrate how Red Desert represents a breakthrough in ecological thinking. Giuliana resists every attempt at erasure by making herself an integral part of the places she inhabits. She refracts landscapes both interior and exterior, transcending the extractive relationship to nature that dominates the film’s imagery.

Installation

This video installation will be included in Light Moves Festival, 9-12 November 2023.