This ready-made film is based on anonymous footage of a physics experiment filmed in Finland in the 1940s. I discovered an abandoned film can at the Finnish Film Archive labelled with a dirty sticker saying ‘physical ring’. My attempts to find out more about the experiment led nowhere. All we see are kinetic ‘magic’ elements: what appears to be fire, magnets, heat, metal and motion. The installation consists of swaying, unending, unsynchronized footage that can be projected on one, two or three walls simultaneously, or even on the floor. The film version has a clear beginning, middle and end. (MT / translation: Silja Kudel)
Music: Ø (Mika Vainio)
Special effects for the short film version: Jussi Eerola
Distributed by AV-arkki, Helsinki (digital) and Light Cone, Paris (35 mm)
Selected screenings
- Zwei Tage Strom, Walcheturm, Zürich, Switzerland, 2024
- Gegenkino, Leipzig, Germany, 2017
- Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Germany, 2016
- MuHKA_media, Antwerp, Belgium, 2006
- Human Engineering, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Switzerland, 2005
- Hotel Futuro, Spacex Gallery, Exeter, UK, 2005
- 4-D, Curves and Straight Lines, Film Museum Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2004
- Media City 9, Artcite Inc. Gallery, Ontario, Canada, 2003
- IFF Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2003
- Starting From Scratch, De Balie, Amsterdam, 2003
- Glasgow CCA, Scotland, 2003
- The Other Cinema, London, 2003
- Electric Visions/Look At Yourself, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, 2003
- Radar, Tyco Brahe Planetarium, Copenhagen, 2002
- Ars Electronica / Cyberarts 2002, O.K. Centrum für Gegenwartskunst, Linz, Austria, 2002
- Viva Helsinki, Sonar, Barcelona, 2002
- Manifesta 4 – European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Frankfurt/Main, Germany, 2002
- Fysikaalinen rengas / A Physical Ring, Kontti, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, 2002
