PICARO
Video [18'28]
Czech Republic 2019
Nadpis 1
Photo © Jack Laing Aiken
The short video Picaro is a fiction-based story in which I tried to experience and imagine the effects of a contaminated environment on the human body and its behaviors. The story is about a human-being finding himself lost in a contaminated environment. To survive in this new and unknown situation, Picaro must evolve new ways of behavior and adapt to his surroundings. By wearing masks and a protective suit against the rising toxicity in the area, he can explore the forgotten ghost-scapes and with the use of modified gadgets and tools he takes examples from nature to analyze them later in his laboratory. His aim is to redraw a new map of consciousness against the unknown nature and his lost memories.
Picaro reflects in a primitive way the necessity of the individual, who is always searching for answers to explain and understand the current situation or innovate and modificate new surviving methods.
birds have grown weary of these barren lands
sounds which used to sweep these hills
have been evicted
leaving only a putrid silence
to ward off any strays
the sun's rays are being held captive
smeared by the thickening haze
maybe I passed 40 miles today
trailing the heels of twilights endless march
the hollowing of my innards suggests
I should turn back soon
despite my precautions, these barren lands
will dispose of me
samples from this far afield
will need time to acclimatise
but supplies must be replenished back on
the south bound trail
the coordinates where right
I supposed to go up north
more to the north
here, one might have thought
he lost his perception of
hearing
coarse air strips the atmosphere
of all familiar inhalations
rarely seen chaos
takes form in forgotten shapes,
forgotten lands,
and forgotten selves.
when seeing the flow gone poor
I was sticking flowers between its fracture
poem written by Jack Laing Aiken & Nicolas Prokop