Andrei Tarkovsky Solaris, 1972, Video, Color, Sound, 6 min 5 sec (Clip), Courtesy MosFilm Cinema Concern, Moskau
Of Hunters and Astronauts
This room functions as an overture to Manifesta 11. It introduces a scene from Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Solaris (1972), which presents an encounter between an astronaut and an alien, in the form of a dead loved one. In the library of the spaceship they float in an embrace. They are backed by paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder: in close-up we see Hunters in the Snow (1565), a depiction of one of the oldest jobs in human history. In Tarkovsky’s composition, representations of history (Bruegel, books, Bach) and scientific progress (spaceship) centre on the thrilling connection between the two weightless figures. It finds an echo in the meetings between professions and artists in Zurich for Manifesta 11: old and new professions encounter the unknown - the production of art.
