S T O P could be confused as a ‘statement film’ but it sways in the opposite direction. In 2020 the average person’s symbiosis with their mobile-phones subjects them to an endless barrage of big data trafficked by AI, algorithms, robotics; a plethora of instructions with the cumulative effect of a constant invasivness that allows no time to understand or reflect, recharge or maintain equilibrium.
S T O P sees things another way by asking people to close their eyes and record a moment without event, progress or logic per say. Creating serialization of consciousness and forgetting or endings, beginning and middles. A sensed exchange of feeling, an observe action that lacks action; a suspension or delay of expectations. By observing people taking a moment to say nothing and see nothing by closing their eyes to bring their focus inside, an action that is the opposite of acting, the intention is for the audience to feel the same. Could this break the contract of society, reality, language and logic and makes us aware of its unrecognizable effect on the individual?
In Joseph Kosuth’s theory of Art as Tautology, the pitfall of content is basic; the more there is included the less meaning it has, the tipping point of art historic reductivisom. The rebellion of that direction, mostly from the 80’s onward is less important than the technological, social and political developments that have occurred.
“S T O P is something that happens when nothing happens, the precise moment of possibilities or interpretations the moment to savior – to hover with a freedom from intent per say, and yet to embrace humanity. S T O P is poetry without words.” Steven Pollock, Curator
S T O P was screened in 2019 at the Cannes Short Film Festival, This Human World Film Festival Vienna, New Jersey International Film Festival, WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, among others, was nominated 16 times and won seven awards in the best experimental film category.