“A film on life in Japan after March 11, 2011. Yet, we are not focussing on the visible damages caused by the earthquake and tsunami, nor on the reconstruction and cheer-up activities following the disaster. Rather, we are interested in non-descript and invisible changes with a particular focus on the current physical and psychological state of emergency which oscillates between actual threat and subtle changes in everyday habits.
We had numerous longer talks with people from different regions in Japan: refugees who, due to the nuclear disaster, have left their homes to live in temporary emergency shelters; families in Tokyo who have got used to handling Geiger counters on a daily basis; students who are organising a referendum against nuclear power; researchers who are developing cheap radiation gauges made from recycled plastic bottles affordable to everyone; artists who, in desperation over the general mindlessness, are organising a festival in contaminated Fukushima etc.
The video installation Spirits Closing Their Eyes is made up of three different image categories. Next to the interviews, there are long photographic shots of places representing situations and moods in a country whose major changes remain invisible and only briefly take shape in the accounts of the protagonists. Furthermore, the project includes a series of short filmed portraits: for one minute, each interviewee looks in the camera thinking of their future which, for most of them, is uncertain.” – Nina Fischer, Maroan el Sani
Nina Fischer, born 1965 in Emden, Germany, and Maroan el Sani, born 1966 in Duisburg, Germany, are visual artists and filmmakers based in Berlin. They have been working together since 1995. From 2007 until 2010 they were Associate Professors for Film and Media Art at Sapporo City University, Japan. Their works have been shown in numerous group exhibitions, biennials, and solo exhibitions.
3-channel video installation, HD, length variable keyword-generated video clips
Photo: © Fischer & el Sani and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013
