HD video, 25:51
Anneè Olofsson’s work may be considered the starting point for the idea of this year’s Open City festival, and it is the only presentation that is neither a sculpture, nor an installation. The video is based on the contrast between the pastoral scene with people relaxing on the beach to the joyful background music, and newspaper headlines reporting tragic events happening elsewhere. It is a postcard from the replenished and safe world, where only in the subconscious, bad dreams or while peeping at the television screen, we can see what is going on just behind the shield of our peace of mind. The voice-over in a neutral manner perfectly pronounces the number of people dead in accidents, murdered or killed in wars, whereas the beachgoers enjoy their ice cream relaxing on sand. A huge yellow form appearing to be the Sun, or a desert in some distant country, turns out to be a parasol as the camera zooms out. However, it is hard to expel thoughts about the relationship between the world – the planet, and tragedies quite abstract due to their distance, and taking pleasure in safer places on Earth.