> Enrique Ramírez (chi)
Sailor
2017
2K Video
10:00
Sailors is part of larger project commissioned for Screen City Biennial 2017. The works are born out of a response to the infamous image published April 19, 2016, in which the Norwegian immigration minister Sylvi Listhaug was photographed in the Mediterranean Sea abandoning ship from a Norwegian rescue vessel – wearing a protective orange survival suit – stating to the press, “You can’t put yourself in the same situation as the refugees but you can see it from that perspective [and experience of] how it is to be in the water that way”. As a symbolic response to this image, the artist invited four foreigners living in Stavanger to partake in the same action and launch themselves into the North Sea in Stavanger – the capital of oil and economy in Norway – and to simply jump into the water… and float. The film is an allegory to the gesture of “throwing oneself into something”. However, to throw oneself into something is not only a physical act but also a decision with deep layers and meanings. To throw oneself into the void, jump into the water, or throw oneself into new situations in life or into the unknown, life is always a limbo where one must make decisions: either stay watching from the fringes or throw oneself in and invent wonderful ‘machines’ to help one survive the journey. It is a jump.
