EL FIN DEL MUNDO
El Fin del Mundo. 2012. HD Film installation with sound. Installation view at documenta-Halle. Kassel. Germany. 13 min. 35 sec.
Directors, Screen- play writers: MOON Kyungwon & JEON Joonho
Actors: Lee Jungjae, Yim Soojung
Theme and Format of the Main Film El Fin del Mundo, adopts a futuristic setting of the apocalypse and its aftermath to pose questions about the social function and role of contemporary art. The film is based on our postexhibit conversations expressing doubts and regrets about contemporary art. It is a dual-screened film that depicts artists and their attitudes just before the apocalypse as well as the rebirth of art through revamped aesthetics in the postapocalyptic world. By presenting the end and the beginning, we hoped to more closely examine the social function and role of contemporary art.
Main film: ‘El Fin del Mundo’ Synopsis
In the late 21st century, following a catastrophe on Earth, most of the world is under water, and majority of humans have died. Survivors now live in a dangerous environment. In this world of chaos, where all order, values, national governments and social systems have collapsed, a small number of corporations maintain a new system of human society. The companies gathered the survivors together, gave them “citizenship,” and provided them with comfortable lives and the benefits of civilization. Using survivors’ labor, the corporations now compete with one another in order to acquire hegemonic control of the new world. Survivors complete dangerous tasks and go through a strict screening process before they finally attain citizenship from one of the companies.
This film is divided into two separate screens: one for the man and the other for the woman. The film simultaneously depicts how the male character continues to work on his art even through the catastrophe and how the female character, a descendant of the survivors, becomes aware of the aesthetic senses after the catastrophe. The woman is sent by Tempus, one of the remaining companies, to a remote archive and happens upon the place where the man worked long ago, coming into contact with traces of the man that transcend time and space.