“… and the Word was Sun” is the second video of the project Korporal Labyrinth, and gives the answer to the first video “In the Beginning was the Word”.
On the day her mother Ariena died, the artist was waiting for a sign. In the Dutch hospital where her mother lied, she discovered the art work “Walters Huis” by Gerhard Lentink, a small chapel build with wooden letters, which compose a poem by Paul Eluard. The artist played a little game she had done two weeks before in a similar installation costructed with metal letters, the “Christian garden” in the Gärten der Welt (Berlin): which is the first word I notice? In Berlin it was the word “Sonne” (German for “Sun”), and now in the hospital she noticed the word “Soleil” (French for “Sun”). Then the artist realized that it must be the word “Sun”, the sign her mother left her while she was breathing her last breath.
Gauži raud saulīte
Ābeļu dārzā.
Ābelei nokrita Zeltābolītis.
Neraudi, saulīte,
Dievs dara citu.
No vara, no zelta
No sudrabiņa.
The Sun cries bitterly
In the apple orchard.
The apple-tree has lost
The golden apple.
Do not cry, Sun,
God makes another one
Of gold, of copper,
Of silver.
(text from the Latvian Apple-Tree Songs)
title: … and the Word was Sun
technique: Video sperimentale e animazione
length: 5’47”
year: 2014
starring: Astrid Astra Esther Indricane and Maria (Felix) Korporal
locations: the village of Sant’Oreste (Rome) and the “Christian garden” in the Gärten der Welt (Berlin)
music: Prologue of the Latvian rock opera “Lāčplēsis” (1988)
video, sound design and all other artwork: Maria Korporal
all about the project Korporal Labyrinth, incl. 4-minutes trailer