Estudios de Teoría Literaria (Mar 2024)
Believing in this world. An approximation to 2020 The thin layer of the earth, by Albertina Carri
Abstract
In a present crossed by a deep ecological crisis, the time of the COVID 19 pandemic during the years 2020 - 2021 marked a turning point in several senses. On the one hand, it forced a worldwide halt through compulsory confinement to avoid contagion, which generated a sort of -illusory and momentary- brake on the acceleration of capitalist production. On the other hand, it signified a sort of semiotic revolt that highlighted the need to put tension on certain dominant ways of life -especially in the big cities- that left aside the human link with other living beings. Among the different artistic manifestations that emerged in that context, I am interested in Bitácoras, a cycle of audiovisuals produced by the Contar.ar platform: five short films directed by Argentine filmmakers who question some of the multiple transformations brought about by that exceptional time of the pandemic. I am interested in focusing on Albertina Carri's short film "2020. La delgada capa de la tierra" (2020. The thin layer of the earth), which explores -without words- an environment of plains, of fragments of open fields, through images and sounds. Unlike the rest of the productions, Carri's short film makes a shift in the narrative device. This movement allows us to ask ourselves questions in order to think of the ground as matter and sign, producer of unpublished affects, while at the same time it questions us about the need to explore other devices -formal, semiotic and aesthetic- in order to detect certain mutations in sensitive perception in times of catastrophe.
