The Island and

it's Editing


2008 | video installation, neon-light | 9  minutes | no sound

Scenes from the remote island of Socotra (Indian Ocean) are edited on formal principles and congruence. 

The Island and It's Editing  Bart Groenendaal 13
The Island and It's Editing  Bart Groenendaal 4
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The Island and It's Editing  Bart Groenendaal 2
The Island and It's Editing  Bart Groenendaal 1

The Island and its Edit is a visual survey of scenery on the remote island of Socotra, in the Indian Ocean. There is no sound. All the focus is on the sequencing of the images, that simply follow one after the other, to create pleasant visual moments, presenting things wihout any context or narrative attached. 


Usually shown on a monitor, in combination with possible other elements, like an orange fluorescent light standing in a corner and a series of pitch-black photo prints on the wall, the images become mere form and lose connection to their origin or reality. In this reduced state, a renewed potential for logic reveals itself, as there is some form congruence between shots, or a little dramatic sequene, when vultures feast on the intestines of a dead cow. We also see the construction of a road: dust-covered men working to make asphalt in the heat. The film ends with a football match: men on a field, reigned in by the rules of their game, similar to how the island in this presentation is reigned in by the rules of the game of art in the white cube. 



camera + edit : Bart Groenendaal


thanks to: 

Abdurahman el Eryani, Abdulghani el Eryani

Ministery of Environment, Yemen

Marco Livadiotti, Floor Beuming

Rijksakademie, Amsterdam


All rights reserved, Bart Groenendaal, 2005- 2008


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