Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

What is the project and its background? Is it a logical continuation from other works you have been doing or is it in someway a redirecting of what you have been doing so far and if so in which way?

This work is a clear continuation from earlier videoworks, but the main difference is the fact that it will be shown in public space. It will be shown on an outdoors window surface in Stavanger, during the Screen City festival.

I made a film last year called The Pyramidical Silence : it was a geological science-fiction short. Here the mountain and the forces which the mountain undergoes are the main characters : the decay of mountains, erosion in connection to the presence of man in the universe. Humans in that movie were present in between parentheses. The landscape and a narrative connected to that landscape is very important to me. I use it as the main subject and not just as backdrop, as it is often used in films.

The project here at BEK is a continuation of this, where I use the landscape as main character. In comparison to The Pyramidical Silence, where there was a clear linear narrative, an obvious beginning and an end, here I try to make more of a circular structure, where the feeling of infinity rules. I am researching around circularity, eternal repetition, things that moves in circles.

Now I am working on a screen play for the project. Where the structure will point a lot to the content. Since the project is shown outdoors, I am trying to play with the fact that viewers should be able to jump in at any point, and leave at any point : still they should get something out of it. I want to create strong images that almost have the effect of hypnosis.

There are some reoccurring themes in your practice that I would love to hear more about. For example what is the ‘role’ of the landscape in your work? To what purposes do you use the landscape in your films? As a follow up: How do you think about ‘action’, can action be or come from an abstracted image or even from the landscape and if so, how?

I want to make a movie about the eternal subject in nature.

I want to talk about landscape and nature on a more universal level, I want them to be read in relation to geology, history, and meteorology. Just as a side note, but I really like science fiction, because it combines my excitement for science and the artistic heart of man, where you can take elements of scientific approaches and then you can go wild with it. For this film, I want to create an abstract dimension, to erase political borders and make it more about the geophysics.

Just to round off this interview: This is your last year as a master in Fine Arts, how would you like to see yourself proceed? Would you want to study more, or do you want some studio or travel time?

Eight years on the school bench is enough. I want to continue reading, continue exploring my curiosities- main topics of my masters are cosmology, I am interested in the pre-historical attempts at understanding how the earth came to be, I really like mythology and geology, I am interested in processes of formation, creation and erosion of our surroundings. I think I will keep on exploring these matters more in depth. I plan to establish myself here in Bergen after the masters and I will focus on film production: I want to make a feature film, after finishing my master…

Thank you Anders, for a nice conversation ! We will continue this conversation after your filming period!

Anders Elsrud Hultgreen interviewed by Piya Wanthiang