And on some level, you can imagine the scenario in this film is almost like a long performance art piece performance. But it can really open kind of this Pandora’s box of mystery and different ways of thinking. Well, art is one of those things that’s slippery, and it’s going to speak to everyone in a different way. And that’s always a gift because there’s a tendency to kind of circle up the wagons, get your opinions, get your thoughts, and kind of your life is about protecting those things. These are things that are mysterious and they make you think in a different way. There’s many things I enjoy about performance art. Q: Tell me about your connection with visual art, or in particular, more conceptual things like Marina Abramović, with whom you’ve collaborated on a few things.Ī: I’m always inspired by going to art galleries and visiting friends’ studios. He’s already started to interact with the paintings. Because we were shooting in chronological order, when he’s drawing on the walls or he’s writing messages on the wall, that’s quite late. It did express the state of mind I was in and incorporated some of the symbols and elements from some of the art I had been looking at in this 30 days of shooting. Why I drew those particular things, it’s intuitive. With time, I said to him I would like to draw something, and I sketched something out roughly and he said, yeah, OK, let’s try that.Īnd there was a huge pleasure in that. And someone in the art department had a kind of idea of what it should be but Vasilis didn’t really like it. What does it say about Nemo’s internal journey?Ī: I just remember that Vasilis wanted some sort of sun god thing happening. Q: The mural that Nemo makes starts as a single eye and grows to cover the entire wall. How’s that happen? That’s interesting to me. And this luxurious place that many people would like to have for a home becomes this horrible, cold prison. Something that is very desirable in one situation becomes a horror in another. It’s a simple concept, but we always assume that we give value judgment to everything, and it sticks.Īnd we forget that in another context it can have a completely opposite value. Because that explores the idea that the inherent value of something depends on its context. The fact that the same pieces of art at the beginning mean something totally different than they do at the end I like very much. And then with time, once he solves, roughly speaking, those problems, he starts to deal with his surroundings. He starts to interact with the art. How did you view his psychological journey vis-à-vis his appreciation of the art?Ī: When he gets stuck, his first preoccupation is how to survive. Q: As time trapped inside passes, the art seems to matter less to Nemo. Because we’re going to trash the house and there’s no going back. “We’re really kind of feeling our way along, and we’re afforded that luxury because we’re shooting in chronological order. And sort of open-ended, where our actions are taking us is where they’re taking us. I’d say the majority of the film was sort of invented in the place when we were shooting, which was an interesting way to work. Q: Is there a freedom in that kind of work? Experimentation in trying different ways of moving through this space?Ī: Yes. I’m thinking of finding what’s beautiful in the surveillance footage. I’m thinking about opening the can in a way that makes sense without a can opener. I never felt that alone.Īnd also because it’s not a conventional performance I’m not thinking about performance. In the respect that like the inanimate objects and the art and the space – and working quite closely with the crew and all the departments – I am like an object in the space. Q: That challenge, of an almost solo performance – what was it like to work that way?Ī: You know, the truth is I don’t remember. In an interview, edited for clarity and length, Dafoe talked about what it was like during those 32 days as Nemo struggles to stay alive, his only human contact is the housekeeper he watches on the surveillance screens, his only hope to use the art and furnishings in the apartment to find a way out. “I’ll tell you how long I was there,” he says, laughing.
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