Phantasma

Saara Ekström / Finland / 2016 / World Premiere / 9 min.

synopsis

In rhythmically changing parallel scenes, this visual atlas of the underwater world shows animals and their natural movements, waving plants and growing crystals, but also the rooms, machinery and equipment at the Copenhagen aquarium that has exhibited these living being for more than 70 years.

“While filming I was pulled into a melancholic and haunted realm. The collapsing aquarium became an allegory of a shared past and time itself. It represents an enchanted place where both the struggle to remember and to forget intertwine.”

biography

In her films, photographs, and art installations, Finnish visual artist Saara Ekström (1965) works with the symbolic meanings of natural and artificially created materials. She is nominated for the Ars Fennica and Carnegie Art Awards and has presented her works at film festivals and at museums and galleries, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Finland, The Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Japan and the Richard Levy Gallery in USA.