ICONOCLASM

ICONOCLASM

Lent is the 40-day period before Easter traditionally reserved for fasting. All major religions observe fasting rituals - times in which to simplify, withdraw and ask the question - who am I apart from my people, my daily activities and routines; apart from what normally sustains and occupies me?

Who am I as a filmmaker and human being, when separated from all screens and moving images?

From Wednesday, February 14th until Easter Sunday, March 31st, 2024, my eyes did not feast. They fasted. No smartphone, no computer, no TV, not even a visit to the cinema until Easter.

A break from work it was not - but work was transformed beyond recognition. In fact, the very fabric of my living, daily, human experience - time, consciousness, hormonal balance - was transformed.

Freed from the shackles of screens, I was the one choosing where to look. Seeing the world as it was in all its daily splendor, banality and suffering. Such had been my hope and my aim - that by closing my eyes to what wants to be seen, to what constantly screams to be seen, I would learn to see and hear anew. To be anew.

The experience was captured in handwritten journals - and subsequently, after my return to screens and life online, published as a serial e-book.