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FOR YOU CAN SEE NO OTHER

Thea Lazăr
Romania, 2021
8 min.

A furious and lyrical hybrid animation that scans through a history of art: man-made paintings of women looking at themselves in mirrors, as to blame them for “being vain”. Tired of being an instrument of the male gaze, the mirror steps outside dogma.

There is something incredibly satisfying about the 3D revenge that Thea Lazăr brought to a two-dimensional history. Mirrors, the filmmaker fast-forwardly shows, have a long history of being an incidental accessory in paintings with female subjects – an indiscreet hint of frivolity and vanity. Only this time, the idea won’t remain a dead letter, but come to life as tableau vivant: an animated mirror detaches from a painting and, with the prose of Tai Shani and the poetry of Sylvia Plath acting as a voice-over, seeks a new consciousness. (Călin Boto)

Date and Location

1st of October, 18:00, Cinemateca Eforie

Tickets

Thea Lazăr

Thea Lazăr (b. 1993) lives and works in Cluj-Napoca. She graduated from the University of Art and Design in the same city and studied with a scholarship at the Academy of Art in Szczecin, Poland. Her practice is mainly digital but meant to live offline, in installations that have come to include textiles and plants. Her plants are telling larger stories about the environment, the planet and socio-political situations through local or untold tales. Since 2016 she’s been a member of the Aici Acolo collective – an artist run project focused on promoting young and emerging artists by organizing exhibitions in unused or abandoned spaces in Cluj-Napoca.

  • Technical sheet
  • TEXTS: excerpt from The Laugh of the Medusa by Helene Cixous / excerpt from Our Fatal Magic by Tai Shani / Mirror by Sylvia Plath
  • VOICE OVER: Bev Gisborne
  • MUSIC: Xenoverb Chorused by Soularflair / nBroken Mirror by 01110010 / Flames (The Beginning) by Frame / Other Directions by Frame / Chillin by Lady Gaga
  • PAINTINGS IN THE MIRROR: Timoclea Killing Her Rapist by Elisabetta Sirani  / Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi
  • 3D SCANS: Capela de Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte by Morbase | Museu Virtual / The Porcelain Room by Hallwyl Museum (Hallwylska museet) / The Small Drawing Room by Hallwyl Museum (Hallwylska museet) / Shepherdess Walk Mosaics by artfletch
  • MADE WITH THE SUPPORT OF: CUTRA

National Short Film Competition 1

All films →

FOR YOU CAN SEE NO OTHER

Thea Lazăr | Duration 8 min.

A furious and lyrical hybrid animation that scans through a history of art: man-made paintings of women looking at themselves in mirrors, as to blame them for “being vain”. Tired of being an instrument of the male gaze, the mirror steps outside dogma.

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