Invisible Adversaries (German: Unsichtbare Gegner) is a 1977 Austrian experimental drama film directed by Valie Export, her debut feature film. Set in contemporary Vienna, the film involves a photographer, Anna, who discovers that extraterrestrial beings are colonizing the minds of her fellow citizens by raising the human aggression quotient. The outer world immediately becomes disjointed, yet the inner world does too, as Anna and her lover, Peter, try to hang onto their deteriorating relationship.
"Durante los últimos veinticinco años de su estudiosa vida, el eminente hombre de ciencia y filósofo Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) fijó su residencia en Londres. Como los ingleses son taciturnos, dio en el hábito cotidiano de conversar con demonios y ángeles. El Señor le permitió visitar las regiones ultraterrenas y departir con sus habitantes. Cristo había dicho que las almas, para entrar en el cielo, deben ser justas; Swedenborg, añadió que deben ser inteligentes; Blake estipularía después que fueran artísticas. Los ángeles de Swedenborg son las almas que han elegido el cielo. Pueden prescindir de palabras; basta que un ángel piense en otro para tenerlo junto a él. Dos personas que se han querido en la Tierra forman un solo ángel. Su mundo está regido por el amor; cada ángel es un cielo. Su forma es la de un ser humano perfecto; la del cielo lo es asimismo. Los ángeles pueden mirar al Norte, al Sur, al Este o al Oeste; siempre verán a Dios cara a cara. Son ante todo teólogos; su deleite mayor es la plegaria y la discusión de problemas espirituales. Las cosas de la Tierra son símbolos de las cosas del Cielo. El sol corresponde a la Divinidad. En el Cielo no existe el tiempo; las apariencias de las cosas cambian según los estados de ánimo. Los trajes de los ángeles resplandecen según su inteligencia. En el Cielo los ricos siguen siendo más ricos que los pobres, ya que están habituados a la riqueza. En el Cielo, los objetos, los muebles y las ciudades son más concretos y complejos que los de nuestra tierra; los colores, más variados y vívidos. Los ángeles de origen inglés propenden a la política; los judíos al comercio de alhajas; los alemanes llevan libros que consultan antes de contestar. Como los musulmanes están acostumbrados a la veneración de Mahoma, Dios los ha provisto de un ángel que simula ser el Profeta. Los pobres de espíritu y los ascetas están excluidos de los goces del Paraíso porque no los comprenderían."
"Virtues of Negative Fascination" is a documentary covering the performance activities of Survival Research Laboratories, Mark Pauline, Matt Heckert and Eric Werner, from 1985-1986. The performances are organized around the interactions of menacingly reconstructed industrial equipment, scientific devices and a wide variety of "special effects" devices which are used to develop themes of socio-political satire. The tape includes performances from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle in front of a audiences of 2-3,000 people. In addition to the performances, "Virtues of Negative Fascination" features incisive interviews and illuminating non performance footage.
Erika Grapes "Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby" - a husky, soft Trip Hop / Dream Pop interpretation of Cigarettes After Sex' hit.
Erika Grapes is rising Italian-Hungarian artist with a dedicated international follow of fans in 142 different countries. Her first single as a solo artist is produced by (also known for his artistic ties to , and ). Erika and Lorenzo work together on a mesmerizing trip hop version of hit which sees the light, as Erika's debut single, in April 2021. Erika gets a immediately a very positive feedback and other fellow artists from around the world contact her for duets and collaborations. One of them, Andrea Castelli, works with Erika for several tracks: "Falling Inside Out" an intimate, melancholic yet happy song about the way human beings cope with psychological suffering with music by A. Castelli and word by Erika Grapes; Romantic Sanity with American rapper WaveyBoy; a spooky-surf cover of Love Potion N.9 and the heartfelt elegy Mother and Child (music and words by Grapes). Around the same time, English artist Alfie Scheinman directs in Swansea, Wales, the video for . December 2021: Erika seals a new collaboration with producer Andrea Del Miglio with whom she puts out the singles , "Into Dust" and "Titanium".
Benning illustrates a lustful encounter with a "bad girl," through the gender posturing and genre interplay of Hollywood stereotypes: posing for the camera as the rebel, the platinum blonde, the gangster, the 50s crooner, and the heavy-lidded vamp. Cigarette poses, romantic slow dancing, and fast-action heavy metal street shots propel the viewer through the story of the love affair. Benning's video goes farther than romantic fantasy, describing other facets of physical attraction including fear, violence, lust, guilt and total excitement. As she puts it, "It wasn't love, but it was something..." It was a chance to feel glamorous, sexy and famous, all at the same time.
Sadie Benning is a lesbian videomaker who began making videos when she was 15-years old, using a Fisher Price Pixelvision toy camera. Benning's early works were made in the privacy of her childhood bedroom, using scrawled and handwritten text from diary entries to record thoughts and images that reveal the longings and complexities of a developing identity. Evoking in turn playful seduction and painful honesty, BenningÕs floating, close-up camera functions as a witness to her intimate revelations, and as an accomplice in defining her evocative experimental form. Her work emerges from a place half-innocent and half-adultÑwith all the honesty, humor, and desperation of a personality just coming into self-awareness, trapped and uneasy. Her more recent work moves beyond the Pixelvision camera and into animation, film and installation.