window
“The face is a living presence; it is expression. The life of expression consists in undoing the form in which the existent, exposed as a theme, is thereby dissimulated. The face speaks. The manifestation of the face is already discourse. He who manifests himself comes, according to Plato’s expression, to his own assistance. He at each instant undoes the form he presents.”
“Alas, with dewy wings
time vanishes from me on the rocking waves.
Tomorrow let time again vanish with shimmering
wings, as it did yesterday and today,
until, on higher, more radiant wings,
I myself vanish from the flux of time.”
“Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.”
Film · In making Things to Come (L'Avenir), Mia Hansen-Løve was inspired by the "image of a woman opening the window of her house and giving herself to the wind...as an image of both emancipation and resignation. And with the ambivalence of that as a metaphor for life." Like an overflowing bookshelf, this film is filled with philosophical musings on how to adapt to change, maintain hope, and embrace the absurd.
Music · This song, At My Window Sad and Lonely recorded by Billy Bragg and Wilco, is from their Mermaid Avenue album. This project features never-before-released songs written by Woody Guthrie, whose music also appears in our film as an ode to protest and perspective.
Words i · In this excerpt from Emmanuel Levinas' Totality and Infinity, his ethics of "the Other" is explored. He speaks of the irreducible epiphany of face-to-face encounters with others which brings our mortality and reverence for life into perspective.
Photographs · A selection of the 1,566 photographs taken during Marina Abramović's 3-month long The Artist is Present performance art piece. This is one of the truest exemplifications of Levinas' “face à face” philosophy, exemplifying pure individuality and vulnerability.
Words ii · From To Sing on the Water (Auf dem Wasser zu singen), the poem by Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg-Stolberg. Franz Schubert's lied of the same name appears in our film as a foreboding reminder of our obligation to evolve.
Words iii · German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer represents the rejection of irrational hopes and expectations and that freedom and happiness are incompatible.
Paintings · German Symbolist artist Clara Siewert rebels against attempts to accurately represent reality in favor of describing truths indirectly or metaphorically. Schopenhauer's absurdity ethics largely influenced the Symbolism movement.