The Sky Oscillates between Eternity and Its Immediate Consequences

Hind Mezaina interviews Nadim Choufi

Nadim Choufi, The Sky Oscillates between Eternity and Its Immediate Consequences still (2021). Image courtesy of the artist.

With text by Hind Mezaina, writer and film curator.

Nadim Choufi’s “The Sky Oscillates between Eternity and Its Immediate Consequences” is an eighteen minute film set in a space colony on Earth composed entirely of digitally rendered environments and stock footage. Based on news about the construction of Mars Science City in Dubai, the film addresses how the future of smart cities relies on the promise of “sustainable” closed systems in the face of health and ecological crises. Two protagonists narrate how the control and exploitation of environmental life cycles and organisms become a blueprint to achieve such futuristic visions.

Nadim Choufi: Rendered images usually try to present a perfect world, or to be more precise, a perfect object. If it is a representation of a perfect environment, how do you achieve it, what type of sociopolitical decisions are made to achieve it?...For the technologies that are being used to connect us, we need to look at the desire of the user versus the desire of the designer. The desire of the user is to connect with others, but the designer wants to keep your attention on their product and to make money. 
The film really focuses on how alone the protagonists feel; or how they long for something that they could or might have; or how much their lifestyle can incorporate their desires, regardless of the type, in the city without it being a lifestyle that’s proposed by the city. 

This work was commissioned and produced by Art Jameel @art_jameel and is part of the Art Jameel Collection.