In the beginning, there was the discovery in January 2012 of a real-world project: the upcoming construction of a Japanese city in southern India. And a hypothesis: this city could become a refuge for the Japanese elite in the case of another nuclear disaster. And then came a double inquiry: how precarious is the world as this "refuge" becomes possible? And conversely, what kind of fate can be imagined as we anticipate such a response? We are now a few months down the line from from the triple catastrophe that occured in 2011, a few months down from "the day Japan almost disappeared" and the town ready to surge up out of Tamil Nadu’s arid steppe has been providentially baptised Omega ("the last one"). Alluding to New World and Noah’s Ark, it most evocative of our foundation myths, of the of the rise and fall of our civilizations. And yet, how does this city throw the essential paradigms of these stories into disarray such as to paralyze its own telling? Through a diverse selection of texts, films and installation work, between India and Japan, dream and nostalgia, this work attempts to embody the city of Omega and simutaneously interrogate the film industry’s ability to think through and recount the loss of a world.
This doctoral exhibition will take place on the afternoon of October 14th at La Fémis in the salle des Jurys.
Exhibition produced by LES FILMS DE LA JETEE with the technical support and financing of the SACRe program by the Université PSL, of the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse, of DICRéAM, of F93, of the Global Studies IRIS and of the Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire. The project was commended by the 2019 BAL prize and a finalist of the 2019 COAL prize.