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Winter Came Early

by Janis Rafa
2015, 3”
Original Format: Video 2K
Presented at Lo schermo dell’arte 2021 in occasion of the exhibition Directing the Real: Artists’ Film and Video in the 2010s The film is part of VISIO – European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images – 6th edition
Courtesy of Martin van Zomeren gallery and the artist
The work of Janis Rafa deals with notions of mortality, mourning and melancholy of nature. In the film, an almond tree is vigorously shaken for ten seconds by the violent enforcement of a machine. As a result the tree’s leaves fall prematurely. The act is captured by a high-speed camera, filming in 2000fps. The work becomes a metaphore of man’s brutal intervention on nature and of the caducity of life.
Janis Rafa (Athens 1984) lives and works between Amsterdam and Athens. Her works have been presented at
international museums, institutions and festivals, including: EYE Film Museum, Amsterdam (2020, 2016); Centraal Museum Utrecht (2019); Internationales Kunstlerhaus Villa Concordia, Bamberg (2018); Manifesta 12, Palermo (2018); 56th Venice Biennale (2015); Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (2015). His first feature film, Kala azar, won numerous awards, including: 2021 Filmfest Sundsval; 2020 KNF Award Tiger Competition, International Film Festival Rotterdam; Special Mention – Young Talent Competition, Hong Kong IFF.
Selected Filmography
2021 The Fear of Leaving the Animal Forever Forgotten Under the Ground; Requiem 3 2020 Lacerate; Kala azar 2018 Take 11: What Remains Is a Wound Disembodied 2016 The Thin Crust of Earth; There She Blows; Untitled (Callas)