Filip Górecki

 

We’re excited to share that Ecdysis – The Film will have its online premiere screening this Sunday November 26th at 8:30pm PST here:

 

https://www.kashvideo.com/ecdysis 

 

The creative team will be available for an online Q and A following the screening IG Live @ecdysis_projects

 

This film has been a long time coming and is part of the larger project Ecdysis which began as a solo live performance in 2020. Developed in the solitude of pandemic isolation with socially distant collaborators the piece then evolved – mirroring its cyborg protagonist – from a focus on the corporeal (the dancing body) to a hybrid project threading together movement, wearable technology, film, set design, installation and sound. 

 

The film was funded through the Digital Now initiative and we acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. The light spine was developed by Dr. Bob Pritchard as part of the Tracking and Smart Textiles Environment (TaSTE) project and supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and UBC School of Music.

 

Ecdysis – The Film (2023)

Duration 8 min

 

Between sleep and wakefulness, unconsciousness and consciousness, a cyborg is caught in a hypnopompic dream state of past realities. As fragments of memories and old programming flashes by, she questions if she is human, animal or machine. 

 

Credits:

Artist Direction and Concept: Daniel O’Shea, Lukáš Hyrman and Emmalena Fredriksson 

Director: Daniel O’Shea

Director of Photography: Lukáš Hyrman 

Choreography and Performance: Emmalena Fredriksson

Music Composition: Filip Górecki

Costume Design: Alaia Hamer

Spine Technology and Programming: Bob Pritchard and Daniel Tsui 

Costume and Make-Up: Hayley Gawthrop, Desirée James and Myah McCarthy

 

Thank you to Andrew Van Hassel, Kiran Bhumber and Daisy Thompson and everyone who made this project possible.

 

Ecdysis was created on the traditional, unceded, and occupied territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. As settlers, uninvited guests and artists on these lands it is our responsibility to interrogate and unlearn the ways in which we perpetuate and benefit from colonialism and how we can actively participate in decolonization and reconciliation. 

 

As a genre of art, sci-fi allows for the questioning of established biases, imagining of new social codes, and reflecting on our current world situations. Ecdysis (the shedding of skin or exoskeleton) invites audiences to contemplate the intersections of evolution and healing, gender and power, and woman and machine. All systems of oppression reinforce one another and can’t be fought in isolation. By considering these intersections, may it also make us reflect on the intersections of power, land, colonization and resource extraction, and call us into action.