But Don’t Vanish, 2018

One-chanel-Videoinstallation, 10:28 Min., Sound and text

Recording and video editing: Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb (D)
Poem: Farnaz Fatemi (USA)
Sound design: Trevor Bumgarner (USA)
Artist in Residence, I-Park Foundation, East Haddam, CT, USA, 2018.

Don’t Vanish could be a possible translation of But Don’t Vanish, reminding us of the transience of our existence. The once wild, romantic notion of nature has long since faltered; for millennia, humans have interfered with and destroyed natural systems. On the other hand, man often sees nature as an undefined, alien danger and creates systems that can be controlled. Evoked by numerous images as well as by various sounds of water, amplified, altered and reinterpreted, slowness, beauty and stillness are juxtaposed with unknown chaos and unconscious depth. But Don’t Vanish is the title of the poem by Farnaz Fatemi, which appears in the film of the same name in sentence fragments and individual words gradually over the length of the film. The artist Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb and the poet Farnaz Fatemi met at the I-Park Foundation (East Haddam, CT, USA). Barbara asked Farnaz if she could imagine writing a few words on the subject of water. The words Lost, Disappear and Appear came to Barbara’s mind while working with the water, on the Eightmile River. She gave these words to Farnaz, who put her own thoughts and ideas into a poem and gave them back to Barbara.