RAPHAëLLE MUELLER & NAGI GIANNI

Written and directed by Nagi Gianni (artist and performer) and Raphaëlle Mueller (artist and researcher), Lasting Beast is the first short film signed by the Swiss duo. In a subtly political art, they explore the tensions between humans, animals and their endangered ecosystems, speculating on the possibility of a utopian civilization. Their work bridges the realms of environmental science and cultural history. To date, their projects explore post-romantic constructions of ’nature’, and stage the transitions between animal and mineral, and encounters between personal desires and natural forces.

LASTING BEAST

• 2017

• 17:23

• film

Lasting Beast explores the relationship between two characters in a human-size terrarium. Their relationship unfolds through parades and actions where human affects hybridize animal behaviors. In this flow of passions and conflicts, the boundaries between the human-animal-vegetal-mineral realms become porous and reveal a strange and viscous black matter.

Project stakes

This project proposes a reflection of our capitalist society. Evacuating the hysterical rhythms of our daily life and eradicating all forms of technology allows us to focus on a human being in connection with our animality. This short film aims to highlight scales, boundaries, and universes that surround us, but to which we usually only pay little attention such as insects, plants, and minerals.