“Everything the Anima touches becomes numinous — unconditional, dangerous, taboo, magical....”
C.G.Jung
Synopsis
Anima emerges from a bathtub on the bank of the river Thames, watched over by the sphinx of Cleopatra’s Needle. Moving through the city's streets, she performs rituals of purification and rebirth. She embodies the terror of wars and pandemics. Blindfolded, she seeks the lost door to the Key of life and truth. Trains revolve, restless rhythms dance on water, steel and concrete surfaces, returning her like an angel to the light.
The Art Film
Anima Urbana – The City Spirit
Art Film shot-on-Video8
Year of release: 1988
Resurrected version: 2023
Length: 13 mins
Anima Resurrections
Trailer
Artist's Statement
History: The film Anima Urbana: The City Spirit is based on a multimedia performance created and performed by Lila Moore at the October Gallery in 1987. The original video was made in 1987 and was filmed on Video8. The video received Special Mention at the Zap Video Festival in Brighton in 1988. It was praised for its innovative approach to video and performance.
Theoria and Aesthetics: The making of the video, and especially the transition from a multimedia performance to a screen, led to research and practice on the formal integration and evolution of performance and screen-based art forms. The film is an early demonstration of Screen-Choreography and Screendance, which later became the topic of my practice-based PhD at Central Saint Martins and Middlesex University.
My work, like those of other multimedia artists of my generation, has evolved alongside technological and conceptual developments in new media arts, film and performance.
The Evolution of Art Forms: The original footage was digitalised in 2023 and re-edited with new visual and sonic contents into a body of artworks utilising new media technologies that form part of The Anima Resurrections installation and collection.
The original video is available for screening in art film and screendance settings as well as media arts exhibitions and installations.
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