Video artist Diego Barrera directs this 12-minute film for Xiu Xiu‘s cover of the Twin Peaks‘ classic, “Into the Night“. Informed by his interest in Hierogamy, or “sacred marriage”, an ancient Near Eastern notion of devotion and sexuality that also finds it’s place in alchemy, and more modern iterations of self-discovery like Jungian psychology, Barrera’s video is accompanied by a short manifesto of sorts in which he lays out the intent behind the film’s beautiful, eerie, and mystifying footage. Seeking to create an image of the “alchemical siren”, it is the “illumination and the union of the so called feminine and masculine principles, of the body and soul” that Barrera enacts through his work. Calling “Into the Night” a “pataphysical proposal”, after the mock-concept “expressed” in Alfred Jarry‘s fictional book Exploits & Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician, the director seeks to establish the primacy of the imaginary in our creation of new realities. While the artist’s lo-fi and Fauvist take on the sacred union of male/female principles is a must-watch, Barrera’s accompanying text is an equally thrilling and intriguing read–so we’ve included it below. Xiu Xiu’s Plays The Music of Twin Peaks LP is due out April 16th via Polyvinyl Records.
“Creation of the alchemical siren, an emblem of illumination and the union of the so
called feminine and masculine principles, of the body and soul, within the
alchemical imaginary. A symbol that represents the alchemical weddings {Hiero
Gamos}.
Alchemy that I combine with a feminist message, feminism that understands
masculinity and femininity as social constructs that each society draws upon
depending on its own interests, where we can rebuild these concepts in the way
we want it. Opening the possibility that personal growth signifies a necessary break
with our child universe, where the starting point of all humans is their assimilation
of similarities and differences to the maternal figure, so that we may dare to think of
ourselves with a reference that is divine, extending beyond gender – neither
masculine nor feminine – real liberation, defined by each in their own way.
The video present itself as a pataphysical proposal, find imaginary solutions
through art, solutions for liberating the mind from teachings that guide the human
brain towards weakness caused by fear, fear of pain, fear of loneliness, fear of
sickness. The HIV has never been identified, AIDS is multifactorial, the Cancer
understood as a monster that devours mankind and not as a response on the
body, the real monsters are organizations that create a universal definition of
health according to their own interests, such as the World Health Organization
(WHO) financed by Coca-Cola and Nestle, where the body is mapped out like a
profitable territory, the body as commodity.
I proclaim the divine nature of the human being, not an idea of divinity of “good,”
but rather the opposite, a divinity that brings together the forces {light and
darkness}. I’m breaking the solar yoke, the harnesses that have fastened us in the
construction of all societies, of all religions, when they select their bases, their holy
books, excluding or denigrating what is referred to as the feminine. Breaking the
yoke of public and private institutions, such as school and family, which only serve
to continue this work of differentiation. I do not believe in this difference between
man and woman; I believe in the possible transformation of each being in all that
we want to transform.”
Diego Barrera *
