These inventions came too late

An exhibition by Miles Fischler, Ans Mertens, Eva van Tongeren 

"How did people ever get the idea they could communicate with one another by letter! One can think about someone far away and one can hold on to someone nearby, everything else is beyond human power. [...] Written kisses will never arrive at their destination, but during their journey are drunk empty by ghosts. Because of this rich nourishment, they multiply in an unprecedented way.

Humankind knows this, and to eliminate as much ghostly between people as possible and to attain a natural intercourse, a tranquility of soul, they created railways, cars and airplanes. But nothing helps anymore, these inventions came too late because the enemy is so much calmer and stronger: after the mail they invented the telegraph, the telephone. The ghosts will not starve, but we will perish.

Inspired by a small text by Franz Kafka in a letter to his lover, Milena, in 1922 the three artists putted together films and fragments filmed with their phones and 16mm camera’s.

The exhibition was on view at RAAT from 29.11 - 01/1 2019