Baltasar Thomas

  • Spectre-19

    Spectre-19 is a multi-channel film installation that takes place in both the material and digital public space. It mixes elements of fiction and documentary film to depict how the collective subconscious processes the social and societal disruption caused by Covid-19.

    Every Friday and Saturday in August 2020, from 10 pm to midnight, the work was projected from the windows of Lab 111 in Amsterdam Oud-West. An online screening could be viewed during the same hours at www.spectre-19.tv.

    During this period, the work changed and grew, refusing to take on a definite shape. The 16mm black and white images were filmed weekly, developed in my darkroom and reassembled for the next screening. Spectre-19 unfolded in time like the shadowy afterimage on the retina, after it has been exposed to a glaring reality.

    The treehouse in the forest shown in one of the scenes in Spectre-19 was made by artist Talisa Kiyiya. Spectre-19 was made possible by Marijn van Haaster, David Wasch, Joppe Harinck,  Onno Petersen, Edwin Schouten, cult cinema LAB111, independent film production company Submarine and live streaming platform WpStream. Spectre-19 is supported by The Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK).

  • Close Encounters

    I could say that ‘Close Encounters’ followed from the following assignment I gave myself:

    Mark the beginning (A) of a ritual/paradigm/world.
    Mark its ending (B).

    Walk from A to B.
    What do you see?

    Do its inhabitants greet you with open arms? Or do they approach with caution or even, suspicion? The answer is often: both. Your mission is to observe, and so you observe. Yet for some reason, you feel that you’ve failed. You feel alienated. The act of marking point A and point B has rendered you unable to focus on anything other than point A and point B.

    ‘Close Encounters’ – single screen video-installation, no sound, 34’15 loop, 2016

    Return home, gather your thoughts.
    What to do next?

    Return to said ritual/paradigm/world (repeat).

    Start at the ending (B) and walk toward the beginning (A).
    Only this time, walk slower.

    Return home, gather your thoughts (rinse).

    Repeat.

    Rinse and Repeat.
    Rinse and Repeat.

    Something might catch your eye, as the outlining of said world (marked by point A and B) starts to fade.