“VICTORIE” (2002) BY STURM-LIE

Åsa: The film “Victorie” is a mirror image of Dante Alighieri's “Divina Commedia” projected into the 20th century art-scene. It starts with the funeral of the Italian book-publisher Feltrinelli and ends in a bliss of light under the Devil-bridge in Cividale/Cedad.

The 1st part of the film features a she-tourist walking through an architectural monument of dead corpses. 100,000 of them. Italian futurists died there in the hills of Friulien/Slovenia during the 1st world war. WHAT A HEROIC STORY…! Futurists who around 1910 pointed out the direction for non-conformist art, with statements like “We are exiled into total darkness in a world where only action counts.” The cynical fact that whichever way you turn there is always someone fucking your ass. We can name Ezra Pound who expressed his opinions over radio Roma.... And we all know-not-know what happened to him! He was left to rotten in a cage not even fit for monkeys.

The 2nd part is filmed from the sky. A near-to-silent picture of Tokyo. Bombed to ashes and fucked down below the gutter. WHAT A GLORIOUS STORY...! And she, the tourist, sings while walking through the bloody remains of the corpses. Her song cleans her body-soul, washing herself in the liquids of piss, shit, vomit, hypocrites, misers, contemptuousness and lickspittles... preparing for a total war of darkness.

In the 3rd part, she is travelling through a landscape of political constraints and interventions that suffocate and imprison her. She has become immune to human diseases. She sees the viruses, all of them death threatening, but they cannot harm her anymore. In her no-alism she goes through:

all genders <-> love
no nation <-> breast-feeding
no religion <-> penis
no language <-> cunt
no family <-> ass
no attributes <-> bite
...towards the end-stadium: I AM I

When she has passed this last obstacle she reaches the point of N O R E T U R N.

So, this was a tourist-walk-about of the 20th century, which started with utopian future visions and ended in worship of homemade aesthetics.

Jadi: J’ai ma fous!

Åsa: Total power to the bourgeoisie-shit! All art-slaves with a heavenly goal to end as a mediocrity in museums, galleries, bla-bla-biennale-banale…

Jadi: I can only applaud to you!

Åsa: So-si, back to Dante Alighieri’s “Commedia”, there is - was - no paradise in the 20th century. A bliss of light under the Devil-bridge, with singing birds and a river of life, exists purely as a material reality on this earth. Also she, the tourist, must disappoint you, she is only a reflection from the past projected by Dante’s “Commedia” into your non-receptive brain.

The fact is:
Art dies.
Art has a short life.
When artists die, their art dies too.

Jadi: Da-ja, STAY ALIVE.