Farhad Kalantary

stills from The Day of Removal, DV, color, sound, 5 min, 2010

Short Clip from The Day of Removal

The Day of Removal is the product of intense and exhaustive video editing. It explores audio-visual rhythms and the collision points of various shots.

From a balcony in Istanbul, high above the ground we see three men at hard physical labour. They dig the ground and remove the rubble, and we never see their faces. The Day of Removal attempts to convey the sense of physical strain that the body experiences in such physical work. The video relates to the physical labour through its own strenuous video editing techniques and perhaps it conveys some of that effort in its viewing experience. The video is made with frame-by-frame juxtaposition of shots. Gradually they become 2 frames, 3 frames and more until a new sequence begins. Each sequence of the video creates a different tempo with a steady addition and removal of video frames.  The Day of Removal treats single audio-video frames like a brick used in construction work.

The Day of Removal

©Farhad Kalantary,2012