(in)Visible
João Bragança Gil
“I try to let the film think. “
— Harun Farocki
The Azores are an archipelago in the ‘middle’ of the Atlantic. Due to their privileged geographical position, these islands have been a place of enormous importance throughout history. This video essay aims to explore the visibilities and invisibilities inherent to the political agendas behind this geographical position through a two-channel video work that juxtaposes images of the magnificent landscapes often portrayed in Tourism advertisements, with media images of Lajes Airport, an important transnational military complex from the First World War to the present day.
The contrast of these two visual sequences composed of ‘found-image’ seeks to reflect on the politics of landscape and its representation, through the simultaneous, although paradoxical, discourses in these locations.
The film is accompanied by the soundtrack “Conquest of Paradise” (1992), by Vangelis, transformed and edited by me, slowing it down more than ten times, transforming it into an almost unrecognizable environment, with about forty-five minutes of duration. Each of these three elements — two videos and a soundtrack — has a different duration, creating asynchronous ‘loops’ and generating endless interactions, combinations and readings, in time.
