THE INTRUDER

“I was walking without thinking. And suddenly I saw myself on a floor with different strata.
Going, at the same time, through successive streets that live in the same street.
It wasn’t one, but all the cities in the world. I knew by remembering.
I was walking through the scars of time”
Jose Jimenez <Memory>

A video piece. A block of Nine monitors: three by three. Three minutes that loops like everyday actions in life. A person following his usual path: going from the subway through the street to his apartment, living the space, sleeping, watching TV, reading etc… and an intrusive image: an intruder –covered face, a ghost presence, that move randomly following the inhabitant’s path breaking the rhythm of the action and the space. The sounds: familiar sounds suddenly interrupted by an intrusive sound: an alarm that enter when the intruder appear.

Space is not void and time is not linear. Space is a thick mass, the addition of several layers. Space, is an accumulation of trajectories, a volume create by the superposition of bodies and days moving in the same space. The present, a heavy fabric waved by moments, individuals and time. The net is a dense trap. Protected by the net and at the same time trapped by it, movements blocked, blocked future. The inhabitant and the intruder both are filling up the space, and controlling it even when being absence. Not just remembrances, memories, facts, reality, present, presence.

Time is not linear, narration is not linear, life is not linear, inhabitation is not linear. Present is an accumulation of past. Layers, days, multiplicity. 9 a cycle that allow the possibility of the multiple 3x3 and a shape: an square that offer several readings at the same time: from left to right, from top to bottom, diagonally, or on a cruise.

Invaded space. Unexpectedly a strange presence cross the space and penetrate it violently. The trace is heavy, a rope. His steps destroy the net when walking through space. This space is not familiar any more, is being raped, its quietness, is internal equilibrium and minimalism is gone. The inhabitant becomes homeless, timeless, with out a bed of past to reference on.

Difference and repetition. Everyday life actions repeat, the difference between them is coming from its life, from its reality. It happen in real time. Each action in this movie happen in real time. Time is not compressed but recreated. Nobody can be at the same time in a diferent space and moment, but on memories.

Another kind of difference: the radical difference, the difference with out repetition: The other, The intruder. Someone that we know but never met, a threat. Something that happen but has no reason. Someone so far from us that not even has a face, like death doesn’t. Someone that alter our space, that appear on it: unexpectedly, …. That take us by surprise.

Every day happen on state of distraction. One person can be watching several screens at the same time, happens with surveillance cameras all connected to a matrix of screens facing a person, or being at home not doing much. In this screens matrix attention is necessary, a sense of being on State of awareness The image of the intruder is intrusive itself move through the screens ramdonly. State of alert.

Idea and direction: Jana Leo; Editing: Celina Alvarado
Inhabitant: Angel Borrego Cubero; Intruder: Sony Devabhaktuni
Special thanks to Corbin Frame, Henry Jackson.
My gratitude to: Angel, Celina y Sony.
Recorded on 408 West 129th St. #2, New York.
November 2002