MODES 3

Whimsical, questioning and utterly absorbing, a collection of animated work delving into worlds of wonder, subversion, and Marxist mystery. Playing with form and overflowing with provocation, these works are fun and some re-construct ideas of animation, paying homage to experimentalists who came before.

This short film program includes the following films:

backflip
Nikita Diakur, Germany/France (12 min)

Given his own limited abilities and the present danger of physical injury, filmmaker Nikita Diakur decides to teach his computer-generated avatar to do a backflip; what follows is priceless.

Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look
Carlos Velandia, Colombia (8 min)

Unpacking the male gaze by splicing together a staccato montage of found footage, which include images depicting the mother, the wife, and the object of desire, an ode to obsessive deconstructionism emerges.

Zoon
Jonatan Schwenk, Germany (5 min)

Salamander-like creatures copulate under the moonlight. A feast ensues, propelling a hungry group of two-legged forest dwellers to new heights.

Intermission
Réka Bucsi, Hungary (5 min)

Set to a minimalist score, simple dots and lines appear at first, then connect, meet, and separate again, as the forms become ever more complex with time, celebrating the joy of ornamentation.

Perforated Realities
Gustaf Broms, Sweden (16 min)

As identification with the self slowly dissolves, the borders between beings evaporate and the environment disintegrates. This mirrored photo performance, which could also be considered a kind of reverse-engineered stop-motion, takes frames away rather than adding them, forming a myriad of sentient beings.

Hardly Working
Total Refusal, Austria (21 min)

Total Refusal returns to MODES with new work following 2020’s dazzling live performance of Operation Jane Walk, and their anti-war masterpiece, How to Disappear. In the moments when the algorithm of their existence shows inconsistencies, the Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) of the popular action-adventure game, Red Dead Redemption, break out of their routines momentarily to display their faultiness and present something touchingly human.