"from their Planet"

In October 2006 curator Harm Lux invited three artists, Antonella Kurzen (Rovio,
Switzerland), Channa Boon (The Hague, The Netherlands) and Sara Rajaei (Tehran, Iran / The Hague, The Netherlands) for a Project, the Artists had not worked together before.
The idea was to create a Work that would include 3 different approaches and in the same
time, reflect on a way to connect not only visually, 3 locations and situations on earth.
How do connect space, time and culture of people living in different cultures, whose families have been living since centuries at the same places, following the same rituals as their grandparents. People who live on their soils, on their ground, and work with the salt of the earth. Creating images where the everyday poetry on three different continents would create an unique artistic project.
Channa Boon went to Bolivia, did her filmwork on world's largest open Saltlake, the Swiss
artist Antonella Kurzen went to the south-indian Kerala, and Sara Rajaei filmed in the iranian Esfahan. Each of the 3 film parts characterizes these specific venues.
Before starting the filmproduction the artists decided to reduce the criteria to an absolute minimum. Photographic images, with a minimum of camera movements should be an important point of departure, aimed at the production of a highly artistic work.
In the works the artists portray three worlds, more precisely formulated: they define three small subject-related worlds. Presenting in an artistic manner how a few persons live their life, how they try to avoid forms of acceleration and their consequences. In their work speaks the "significance of the quiet" and nature - in the center are individuals who give their daily life a special sense through a strong self-will.
After they came back to Europe, the Artists worked together for creating out of this special portraits one single installation, that would connect the 3 different situations.
An Installation that would connect 3 very different landscapes and its protagonists:the wide
open images of the saltlake in Bolivia, with the isolated living iranian author and with the
life of a south indian gopi.
The result is a slow photographic videotriptych where the images try to escape a rational
categorization, where the everyday reports about solitude and joy is in the center and
show this in a very special artistic production. When looking the film it becomes clear that
the contemplative images around the subject (making the context visible in a very subtle
way) are the one which have the most illuminative and obstinate qualities, they may be
considered as the most authentic, powerful images. (ph)