Transitions, 2017, DCP / video projection, 5.1 Dolby Surround (no dialogues), 13 min., edition: 5 + 1AP


Transitions is a journey from the civilizing void of the desert to a maximal urban, capitalistic and hedonistic density, which in the case of Las Vegas assumes some bizarre expression. The film is a contemplation without any people or moving machines in it, focussing on the built and designed.

Text by Esther Eppstein & Elodie Pong:
The work Transitions (2017) by Aurèle Ferrier examines the traces left by human civilisation - the conquest of the unwelcoming hostility of the desert ends in the surreal and hedonistic consumerism of Las Vegas. The camera leads us, with a menacing langour, through a backdrop of deserted city-outskirts. The buildings, cars and  billboards speak of people’s dreams as they strive for a version happiness. The prevailingly eerie, apocalyptic mood draws you along on this filmic journey. These traces of humanity seem increasingly laughable and helpless, they vibrate with a peculiar melancholy. Where have the people disappeared to? One has the impression a catastrophe has occurred, an epidemic, or maybe it is simply an empty film set after a shoot?
The film with its calm and assured grasp on image and sound is able to produce a refined suspense. The film takes the viewer on an odyssey, one that could also be a metaphor for the boundaries of human endeavor. The human culture and civilisation that emerged from the desert, will in the end be desert again.


Prizes
2021  Weitblick - trailer Ruhr-Preis, Blicke Filmfestival des Ruhrgebiets, Bochum
2021  Honorable Mention, Experimental Forum, Los Angeles
2020  First prize ex aequo, In Out Festival, Laznia Center of Contemporary Art, Gdansk
2018  Best audiovisual/video art work, Madatac Videoart & New Media Audio-Visual Art, Madrid
2018  Formal Innovation Prize, Eurovideo, Vidéographies International Video Art Association, Liège
2017  Fine Arts Grant, Canton Zurich
2017  Winner Swiss Competition, Videoex Intl. Experimental Film & Video Festival, Zurich

Exhibtions, Film- and Moving Image Festivals
2023  Night School, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai
2022  Urban Stories by Video Window, Cinemateca do Museu de Arte Moderna Rio de Janeiro
2022  International Film Festival of Larissa
2022  Ultra Cinema, Zócalo de Tepoztlán
2021  Heimspiel, Kunsthaus Glarus
2021  Blicke Filmfestival des Ruhrgebiets, Bochum
2021  Internacional de Videoarte, Museo MARCO La Boca, Buenos Aires
2021  Mumbai Shorts International Film Festival, Mumbai
2021  Current Situation Exhibition, Laznia Center of Contemporaray Art, Gdansk
2021  European International Film Festival (Mainstream & Underground), Moscow
2021  Pune Short Film Festival, Pune
2020  POSTPONED due to COVID-19, YBCA Center for the Arts, San Francisco
2020  Lviv International Short Film Festival Wiz-Art, Lviv
2020  Visions in the Nunnery Exhibition, London
2020  Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athen
2020  Arizona Underground Film Festival, Tucson
2020  SF Urban Film Fest, San Francisco
2020  Waterpieces International Contemporary and Video Art Festival, Riga
2020  HS Fest, La Gare Expérimentale, Paris
2020  Urban Stories, Kunstraum Walcheturm, Zürich
2019  Rencontres Internationales, Contemporary Moving Images, Paris/Berlin 
2019  VP Kyoto screening at Image Forum, Tokyo
2019  NewFilmmakers NY, Anthology Film Archives, New York
2019  Arquiteturas Film Festival, Lissabon
2019  A Window to the World, City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
2019  Cairo Video Festival, Kairo
2019  Biennale d’art vidéo et performance /si:n/ en Palestine, Ramallah
2019  Greeen Film Festival, San Francisco
2019  Alternative, Festival of New Film and Video, Belgrade
2019  Festival ECRÃ, Cinemateca do Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
2019  Meet the Artist, Kino Xenix, Zürich
2019  Cinetekton, Festival Internacional de Cine y Arquitectura, Ciudad de México
2019  Medianale, Dallas
2019  Film program Human-Free Earth, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw
2019  Video program, Macro Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome
2019  In between: passages and (de)monumentalisations, Film Symposium Balkan Can Kino, Athens
2019  Addis Video Art Festival, Addis Ababa
2019  The Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival, Tampa
2019  Dhaka International Film Festival, Bangladesh National Museum, Dhaka
2019  Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, Iowa City
2019  Strangloscope, Mostra Internacional de Áudio/Vídeo/Filme/Performance, Florianópolis
2019  L'Europe autour de l'Europe, festival de film d'auteur et de l'art, Paris
2019  Transitions, Museum of Emptiness, St. Gallen
2019  Videolands, MOMus State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
2018  Joburg Fringe Videoart, Johannesburg
2018  25th Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago
2018  Open City Documentary Festival, London
2018  33ième Videoformes, Video Art & Digital Cultures, Clermont-Ferrand
2018  31es Instants Vidéo, Marseille
2018  Videoparty, Kyoto
2018  Madatac, Videoart & New Media Audio-Visual Art, Madrid
2018  Tirana International Film Festival, Video Art & Experimental official competition, Tirana
2018  25th European Film Festival, Palic
2018  Festival International de Videoarte, Buenos Aires
2018  Internationales Architektur Film Festival Move Cine Arch, Venedig / Paris / Sao Paulo
2018  Architekturtage, Haus der Architektur, Graz
2018  Present Future Film Festival, Macao
2018  Eurovideo, Festival Européen des Arts Vidéos, Videographies Int. Video Art Association, Liège
2018  Video Art Festival Turku
2018  Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, Hawick
2018  Bienal Int. de Video y Cine Contemporáneo, Instituto de Cultura de Baja California, Mexicali
2018  Drunken Film Fest, Bradford
2018 +Code, Festival de Arte Electronico, Buenos Aires
2018  International Video Art Forum, Dammam
2018  Mostra de Arte do Audiovisual do Barreiro, Barreiro Belo Horizonte
2018  The Unseen Festival, Denver
2018  Screening, FokiaNou Art Space, Athens
2018  Sopó Film Festival, Sopó
2018  15º Oberá en Cortos / Play Semana de Videoartes, Misiones
2018  Video Art Miden, Kalamata
2017  IDFA, 30th Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
2017  52. Solothurner Filmtage, Solothurn
2017  Werkschau, Werkbeiträge Kanton Zürich, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich
2017  Werk- und Atelierstipendien Ausstellung der Stadt Zürich, Helmhaus, Zürich
2017  26th Berkeley Video & Film Festival, Berkeley
2017  Internationaal Kortfilmfestival Leuven
2017  Channels, The Australian Video Art Festival, Conditional Surplus, Melbourne
2017  Facade Video Festival, Plovdiv
2017  Seattle Transmedia & Indepentend Film Festival, Transmedia Gallery, Seattle
2017  Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York
2017  Videoex Internationales Experimentalfilm & Video Festival, Zürich
2017  Cairo Video Festival, Medrar for Contemporay Art, Kairo
2017  Play, Semana de Video Arte, Centro Cultural Universitario, Córdoba (Argentinien)
2017  Pittsburgh Architecture Movie Festival, Pittsburgh
2017  UMW Media Wall, Moving Image Exhibition, Universtity of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg
2017  Blue Magpie Experimental Film Series, Film Center at National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu

Credits
A film by Aurèle Ferrier — sound design and foley artist: Peter Bräker — editing consultants: Sandra Bühler, Andreas Müller — third eyes: Anna Hilti, Thomas Galler — post production: Gregg Langlois, Noé Marti — poster design: Krispin Hée — support: Kulturförderung Kanton St.Gallen (fine arts commission / film commission), Volkart Stiftung, Ernst & Olga Gubler-Hablützel Stiftung

Collaborators
— Peter Bräker, sound designer and foly artist (selection): Aloys (2016, T. Nölle), Cure (2014, A. Štaka), Yalom's Cure (2014, S. Gisiger), Infrastructures (2014, A. Ferrier), Mary Mary Queen of Scots (2013, Th. Imbach), Bird’s Nest - Herzog & De Meuron in China (2008, Ch. Schaub), Gambling, Gods and LSD (2002, P. Mettler)
— Noé Marti, video and post-production (selection): Zilla Leutenegger (video art), Karim Patwa (film), Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion, Schweizer Fernsehen, Prof. for AfterEffects/Animation (HSL, ZHDK), Condor Films
— Gregg Langlois, video and film post-production, Paris (selection): The Fountainhead (2010, Société Réaliste/F. Grof/J.-B. Naudy), Banda Bilili (2010, R.Barret/F. de La Tullaye), We don't care about music anyway (2008, C.Dupire/G. Kuentz), Bouzkachi (2008, J. Debs/Les Films d'Ici/Arte)

Technical details for presentation
— Single-channel-VideoHD-installation, FullHD projection, horizontal line min. 3.5m, 5.1 Dolby Surround
— DCP data for cinema sreening (1 : 1.85, colour, 5.1 Dolby Surround)

ISAN: 0000-0004-5097-0000-U-0000-0000-L
SWISS FILMS short films




© 2017, all rigths reserved.