Films4peace by Janet Biggs

This is the first in a series of films4peace an annual short film commission by PUMA.Peace, curated by Mark Coetzee, which features some of today’s most innovative contemporary artists visually interpreting the subject of peace. Purple are showing these to celebrate World Peace Day—an international United Nations day of ceasefire, and a day for individuals, organizations and countries to demonstrate acts of peace, which took place yesterday. We will premier 12 films4peace over the coming 12 weeks. The first film is by american artist Janet Biggs.

Janet explains the concept as “The video opens with a lone figure, myself, in the vastness of the Arctic landscape. The expected sense of peace that comes from isolation and beauty is destabilized by feelings of vulnerability in such a remote land and by the sheer power of nature. Romantic notions of awe and wonder intermingle with feelings of tension brought on by a land that has no want nor need for human presence. Unexpectedly, the figure loads and shoots off a flare into the archetypal frozen north. This gesture is both an aggressive assertion of power and a cry for help. This violent act is transformed into a sublime moment as the flare gently descends to earth like a falling star. The figure walks out of the frame leaving no evidence of herself or her act. The Arctic returns to a remote land awaiting interpretation, ripe with the illusion of peace.”

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