洞 [Dóng / The Hole] (Tsai Ming-liang, 1998)
Mar
22
National Sing It Out Day
The man upstairs and the woman upstairs, both dressed in that perfectly cool, 1960s Chinese style, break out in song in their crumbling apartment block The woman's singing voice is legendary Grace Chang's. DP: Pen-Jung Liao.
In a #plague-ridden Taiwan, it rains relentlessly. The #rain and a #virus forces people to retreat. In Hsiao Kang's crumbling building, a plumber inadvertently punches a hole from his floor to the unnamed woman's below. While she, another victim of the #disease, holes up in her apartment they struck up a strange detached relationship.
Between the endless downpour and frantic #food hoarding, in her heart a #musical sings.
fantasy
“He puts his cheek to the wall. With a kiss he licks the vertical surface and the greedy plaster sucks in his saliva. Then a shower of kisses.”Un chant d'amour [A Song of Love] (Jean Genet, 1950)
Jan
30
National Escape Day
From one prison window to another, a bunch of flowers swings towards a grasping hand. DP: Jacques Natteau.
An escape of sorts, in love and lust.
– Jean Genet, Notre-Dame des Fleurs (1942/43)
Иконостасът [Ikonostasat / The Icon Stand] (Todor Dinov & Christo Christov, 1969)
Jan
15
World Religion Day
Icon maker Raphe (Dimitar Tashev) and Katerina (Violeta Gindeva) surrounded by the icon stand. The Holy Virgin can be seen in the background. DP: Atanas Tasev.
The cyclical story of the Christ envisioned as an icon maker, the creator of sacred images of the saints and the Holy.
When you know what to look for – the significance of bread, the judgement of the Pantocrator, the wheel that begets martyrs – Иконостасът speaks the language of the people, not of the ecclesiastic.