A world without adults. Groups of kids live unfettered by the tyranny of adulthood. A girl and a boy crash a car. They wander the landscape, stop at a farm, help their friend. They return to their community living in a group of cliffside caves next to the sea on an island. They muck about, play games, swim, cook rabbit over a fire, and perform plays for one another. In a vast abandoned quarry a filmmaker shows a film about a young minotaur confused in a labyrinth. The girl leaves on a pilgrimage, going through an underworld populated by decrepit adults barely seen. She emerges into another land, climbs a mountain and meets a scholar and their translator. She asks the scholar about the Earth, the times, language, the future (this is a play by Don Delillo called The Word for Snow). Only partially satisfied by mysterious answers, the girl leaves to find her own way in the world. She hot wires a car and drives along a desert highway listening to her favourite song, shutting her eyes, singing along and laughing.
Azkuna Zentroa Alhóndiga Bilbao, Le Fresnoy - Studio national, Matt's Gallery, London, Garbiñe Ortega, Ellen Pearson, Pep Salvador. Images courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry Gallery, London.
Ben Rivers lives in London. Awards include the EYE Art Film Prize; Baloise Art Prize, Art Basel; Tiger Award IFF Rotterdam. Solo shows include « Phantoms », Triennale, Milan; « Urth », The Renaissance Society, Chicago; « Islands », Kunstverein of Hamburg; « Earth Needs More Magicians », Camden Arts Centre, London.
Production : Le Fresnoy, Studio national des arts contemporains