2-channel video installation, 705 min. Without dialogue.
A static shot of a swimming pool. In the background the Mediterranean Sea. A woman swims back and forth across the frame, starting in darkness, from sunrise through noon, until the afternoon, sunset, and subsequent darkness.
Filmed in an outdoor pool located on the Beirut coast, Extended Sea is a 12-hour single shot from dawn to dusk, where kilometers are crossed through one single frame. In or out of the beholder’s sight, the woman swims without fail, in real time. Boats cross behind her, a few swimmers floating here and there in the sea while she pursues her in and outs. At noon she disappears for a while, perhaps an hour. The frame remains fixated, as it has since dawn. Nothing moves the water in the pool except the wind. The light changes in a manner that is barely perceptible. In the early afternoon she reappears and continues her swimming as the sun bears down strongly on the pool. Then disappears once more. She returns with her steady motion, swims back and forth, vigorously at times, in slow motion at others, disappears for a while then returns until dusk and nightfall.
Nesrine Khodr is a visual artist and television producer living and working in Beirut. She works in film/video, print, and performance. She studied history at the American University of Beirut, and European film studies at the University of Edinburgh, and between 2003–04 was an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Her work has been shown in exhibitions, biennials, and film festivals worldwide.
