Mohammad Reza Mortazavi

Description: An experimental video work that questions human society through the behavior of ants, exploring the reaction of a system that has reached a point of saturation. In a simplified space, ants keep walking atop a cube of endless corridors with no beginning or end, as food rains down from above from the sky. Their pheromones trace infinite paths like the corridors themselves, guiding the ants that follow behind. Once the ants become aware of the pheromone feedback, they one after another attempt to escape to the lower world, only to begin walking in circles again. Through the perspective of these small creatures, this work asks viewers about a certain law that lies at the end of an artificial system.

This experimental film work abstractly interprets philosophical and scientific perspectives to depict the beginning of all things. It portrays ether as a philosophical concept, the emergence of the solar system, the sea as the source of life, and ourselves. Moving back and forth between ancient times and the present, it depicts a variety of scenes of creation born from the artist’s imagination. The red cloth that plays a central role in the work alludes to the heart, the fundamental organ of life, and to the placenta, the source of nourishment for mammals; the drumming echoes through the space, likening its sound to the heartbeat, the rhythm of life. The bright white room and the tunnel underwater, which serve as the setting, are based on childhood memories the artist has retained since long ago, and connect fantasies in a setting unconstrained by time and space. Technically, no 3DCG was used; everything was shot live-action and edited using animation techniques. The red cloth was rotated using the slit-scan technique, which incorporates time from the past to the future into the subject. What is the difference between matter and life? What does it mean to live? The artist has packed into this work a sense of life as felt through vistas spanning from the macro to the micro, and through memories stretching from the past to the present.