Alexandra Moralesová – Blau Peru 1979-1980

when: 12 November 2016
venue: Bauhaus
time: 8 pm
admission:  150 CZK / 100 CZK (students)

2015, photo-novel with a mystery
45 min, 35 mm

story, script, director: Alexandra Moralesová
dramaturgy, image processing: LaboDoble
voice-over: Georgy Bagdasarov / Jiří Podzimek
sound: Petr Zábrodský/Jiří Rouš
assistant: Anna Ouřadová

Like everything else, Blau Peru started with a find. Most people tend to find things all the time: a roll of used film, a banknote, a bunch of paper photos, a girl, a glove or somebody’s notes. And then there are discoveries, i.e. finds of large things with a purpose arranged into wholes (do not confuse with exploring). With such discoveries, both the content and the structure are found. For example, captions, abbreviations and numbering represent a form that expresses a certain system, a certain way of thinking. In the case of Blau Peru it was the discovery of the distance of 1,560 metres travelled by narrow colour film in the camera of an unknown photographer. In total, it makes up thirteen 120-m reels of the Super8 film. Two thirds show a garden in the changing seasons of the mild climatic zone. One third, however, contains footage of Peru and captures the plants of the South-American jungle and the Altiplano, lamas and the native inhabitants of the continent, tourists, soldiers and inscriptions in Spanish. All the reels have labels of the Bonum Austrian company with a magnetic system, which means that the reels are tightly attached. It is difficult to determine whether there are gaps between them. Why is the last record of the maker of Vienna home videos, let’s call him Blau, a series from South America? What is the connection between the Alps in the setting sun and Machu Picchu?