Green Gold

On a cargo boat. Two Dutch brothers in their sixties. Faces and bodies marked by a whole life spent traveling on the Rhein, the Maas, the Danube... They are born on the water and the boat is their only house. The Watna measures 86 meters in length, 11 in width and 12 meters in depth. Most of the time Harrie and Leon are alone in their daily routine, while outside the landscape flows restlessly away at a constant speed of twelve kilometers per hour. Huge industries and romantic castles. Cargo boats and luxury cruises. Observed from the cabin, the river banks appear unapproachable and fleeting, bound to a parallel temporal state where every matter seems to float suspended. Meals are often solitary and there is only little time to rest: Watna cannot stop its rush against time, since the profit on carriage of raw materials barely covers the costs of the shipping.

Permanence is part of a project lasted two years, following the demolition process of Crooswijk neighborhood in Rotterdam, one of the most extensive urban “redevelopment” ever in the history of The Netherlands. Hundreds of social houses are being replaced by new luxury residential buildings. The apparent stillness of objects and spaces reveals a superhuman time that remains suspended.

The title ironically alludes to the human attitude of domesticating every sort of spaces, from private gardens to the landscape. The secret life of things –still leben- is gradually revealed in these domestic shots, fragments of melodies overlap accompanying the exploration of the wunderkammer. Archaeological and natural findings, everyday tools and mirabilia appear in succession: it is a journey through different social classes and through the history of the common land in Aberdeenshire.

The video deals with peripheral areas of Milan: spaces excluded from the sparkling imagery advertising EXPO2015. Only unproductive parcels, debris of urban gardens and spontaneous weeds are left. Shot at night in these dehumanized areas, barely revealed by street lights or by the flashlight of night security guards. The reverberation of off-screen sounds gives back the vastness of these construction sites, whose complete vision is denied to the viewer. Gradually some radio conversations emerge.