SABINA MIKELIĆ

FILMING BEYOND VOICING RELATIONS

An experimental research on the act of filming as a pretext for social interaction and on the frame as a space of expression, unveiling and empowerment.

Sabina Mikelić is a visual and multimedia artist (Croatia,1981), who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 2013 with an MA in New Media and Animation. She started exhibiting in 2002 and has since had many national and international exhibitions (T-com MSU, Transform, Sofia, VIG –special invitation), film screenings (Days of Croatian Film, Liburnia Film Festival / Award for the Best Regional Film 2014, Etnofilm Rovinj / Award for the Special Contribution to Ethnographic film 2013). Sabina won a prize for the best pitch in the Balkan Documentary Center workshop in Prizren, Kosovo during the Dokufest 2015. From 2015—2017 Sabina worked as a professor of Video, Animation and Visual Communications in the School for Art, Design, Graphics and Fashion Design, Zabok, Croatia.

My relation to the world has always been governed by the desire to know the world and enjoy it. At the same time my desire was intertwined with a fear of the unfamiliar. At one point in my artistic practice I discovered that I can meet the world through the camera and that the camera can become a mediator between me and the world. I always had an interest in people, in my immediate surroundings, in connecting, creating bonds and communicating. Through filming I was trying to establish intimacy and trust.

I believe that because of the camera and the act of filming I can access subjects and themes in a way that wouldn’t be possible without the excuse of making a film. Or more simply: the camera gave me a new authority; it became a tool of empowerment and enabled a new space to emerge where I could meet the other.

At this point in time my research deals with the act of filming and how, through the act and the device of filming (the camera) I can question trust and relations with my subjects, while at the same time all the complexities of the relation between director and subject become visible.¹

My research is not only about the creation of a relationship with the subject but also about the construction of my own aesthetics, my own signature — made up of fixed shots and very formal and cold compositions, almost like in classical painting. It is in the dichotomy of the formal ‘cold’ set-up of the fixed shot (as a frame, as a painting) and the often emo tional content, that a specific dynamic is created. The choice of format, image ratio and framing plays an important role in my research and allows me to come to my own realisations and understanding of what lies behind my aesthetic choices.

By staging or creating a simple mise-en-scène, in which my subjects can perform themselves, I am questioning how cinematic space can become the space for the appearance of a new meaning. I realised that the intrusiveness of the camera can only be surpassed by, at the same time, acknowledging and questioning the device and performing before it. The importance of my research and project lies in gaining authority over my process, gaining trust in the world and revealing the simplicity, awkwardness, tenderness and beauty of human interaction as mediated by the camera.

¹ I like to wonder about and reach the other, be it a stranger from the train, a new-found neighbor in the Netherlands, or a male choir from my island Rab in Croatia. Using the excuse of filmmaking I have a chance to peek into their worlds and see if something magical can happen. I investigate whether we can create a cinematic space where we can exist together and share a moment. I guess I really need to see beauty in the world, or make it happen. Through my research I wonder if I can achieve a sense of togetherness and capture in a fixed shot, while not knowing what will happen and while both me and my protagonists come as we are: imperfect, doubtful, vulnerable and embarrassed.

House Number 376, 2010, video still

One, 2010, video still

Beyond the Choir Through my research project Beyond the Choir I pose questions about how it’s possible, through the act of filming, to go beyond stereotypes and that which I already know, to go beyond the context of my island and its locations and people.

Can research into peoples’ intimate relationship with a place, be at the same time a lab to look deeper into the act of filming and the role of the camera in social interaction? And can it thus be a way for me, as a maker, to solve the question of my own belonging? How can I use the camera and the act of filming to share a moment with the other? How do we relate to and trust each other? 2

Beyond the Choir, in its present state, consists of 7 sequences in which each of the 7 members of the Krijanca traditional male choir, take me to a place on the island that is important to them. Part of this method, which I call ‘Take me somewhere’, is that they do not reveal beforehand where they’ll take me, just like I do not reveal why I ask them.

By visiting these locations my intention was to get an insight into my protagonists’ intimate relation with that specific location or landscape and to get the chance to see the location through their eyes and emotions.

The moment of the act of filming however brings to the surface our relationship and exposes the process of filming itself; my protagonists perform themselves and I perform the director. The 8th sequence is a sequence of their gathering where they perform their group identity. They sing.

2 My brother sings in a male choir. They sing traditional songs. They are men. I am a filmmaker interested in them. To get to know them I made an excuse in form of a project.

Director Sabina Mikelić Cinematographer Sabina Mikelić, Bojan Mrđenović Sound operator Hrvoje Radnić Producer Tibor Keser Editing Sabina Mikelić, Maida Srabović, Albert Elings Sound editing Ivan Mihoci Runner Marin Pahljina Protagonists Joško Staničić, Sebastian Debelić, Marko Štokić, Nereo Krunić, Antonio Gabrić, Sanjin Debelić, Siniša Mikelić, Sabina Mikelić, Island of Rab

Beyond the choir, 2018, video still (as well on the previous page)