Marcin Liminowicz

SUMMARY“The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images.”¹

Do we influence the observed object when taking a photo? Raw video registration displays a view on short cruise to the ice-covered northern part of Bay of Bothnia. The natural phenomena of freezing sea can be perceived as meaningful and unique for the global warming era. Thick layer of ice cracks under heavy body of the ship as sun slowly rises. What we see directly is an icebreaker trip - a Finnish tourist attraction available through winter. Taking on a role of participant, author looks at the active-passive relation between other tourists and surrounding they are immersed into. Steady, endless space stays in contradiction to the constantly moving boat which finally moors in “the middle” of the sea. At this point we can notice change in participants position. From tourists experiencing landscape through smartphone lenses they transform into „innocent” invaders of an uncharted, empty land. The confrontation of resulting images is a way to investigate postcolonial character of the anthropogenic landscape. What can be called „visual exploitation” rarely remains neutral for the explored ecology and its inhabitants.

¹. G. Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, Chapter 1: The Culmination of Separation.
VIDEO EXCERPT2 channel, hd, color, sound '7:17
IMAGESEXHIBITIONLoop Discover Award 2018 finalists exhibition, Fabrica Damm, Barcelona
made with Lay Theme