Transitions (2017) · 12:48 · no dialogue · single-channel · DCP 5.1 surround · edition: 5 + 1 AP

Transitions moves from the desert’s civilizational emptiness into urban over-density: Las Vegas as a surreal compression of capital, desire, and image. In largely unpopulated frames, the built environment becomes the protagonist—architecture, billboards, and surfaces as traces of desire, projection, and control.

“The work Transitions (2017) by Aurèle Ferrier examines the traces left by human civilisation – the conquest of the inhospitable desert ends in the surreal and hedonistic consumerism of Las Vegas. The camera leads us, with a menacing languor, through a backdrop of deserted city outskirts. The buildings, cars and billboards speak of people’s dreams as they strive for a version of happiness. The prevailing eerie, apocalyptic mood pulls you into 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 that a catastrophe has occurred, an epidemic – or perhaps it is simply an empty film set after a shoot.
With its calm and assured command of image and sound, the film generates a refined suspense. It takes the viewer on an odyssey that can also be read as a metaphor for the limits of human endeavour. The human culture and civilisation that once emerged from the desert will, in the end, become desert again.”
Laudatio by Esther Eppstein & Elodie Pong — Winner Swiss Competition, Videoex Intl. Experimental Film & Video Festival, Zurich

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

Credits
Concept, camera and editing: Aurèle Ferrie · sound design: Peter Bräker · editing consultants: Sandra Bühler, Andreas Müller · third eyes: Anna Hilti, Thomas Galler · post production: Gregg Langlois, Noé Marti · poster design: Krispin Hée · production: Aurèle Ferrier

Support
Arts Council of the Canton of St. Gallen (Fine Arts Commission / Film Commission) · Volkart Foundation · Ernst and Olga Gubler-Hablützel Foundation

Technical details for presentation
— DCP available for cinema screening (1.85:1, colour, 5.1 surround)
— Single-channel HD projection; minimum image width: 3.5 m; audio: 5.1 or stereo

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