Genius Loci ( sense of place ) Video-art part A

Shai Zakai

Script

Story board and general background

This is a project of a photographer/ecological artist, who react upon the destruction of forests and open spaces in Israel and around the world.

Every minute, 139 acre of tropical trees are being cut in the rainforests. Every year 139 million acre of tropical trees are being cut .

Up until 1980, 40% of all the tropical forests in the world, which existed from the beginning of the century, were cut. ( WRI )

In Israel, Open spaces are diminishing rapidly. Most of the open spaces are closed to public, and kept by the army.

Due to unsuitable planting of forests, in the beginning of the 20th century in Israel, wrong species were planted and the outcome are dead forests. Dead forests are potential areas for construction initiators.

The most crucial need, is to act in every way possible to raise public awareness to environmental issues and to the declining of open spaces in Israel in particular.

Genius Loci, should be a parameter of evaluation, in every cutting act, around the world. Environmental philosophers has dedicated books and researches to it, but Genius Loci was never took under consideration when decisions were made on destruction of an open space, and was never given "a face".

This short video-art, running in a loop, brings to life an entity that has been long forgotten in the minds of people, but exists among nature spirits. It is the gatekeeper of life, of all flora and fauna. It is also alive in each and every one of us, but in the fast track of modern life and the ever-widening gap between humans and Nature, it has been pushed aside and forgotten.

The current video-art-dance is about to bring it back to our consciousness, once again.

This entity springs to life out of tree trunks and rocks in a dead forest, where you can still stumble upon small, isolated islands of greenery.

In between deforestation and the creation of new lives, Genius Loci is trying to survive within the circle of life.

Sound and movements, derived from energy centers in our body, serve as metaphors for the revival sound of the forest.

Inseparable, unrecognizable, as part of biodiversity, forming the intrinsic value of a place, giving it a kind of face and sound, if only we allow ourselves to recognize the very existence of Genius Loci .

Dialogs ( body language & sound ) occur between tree trunks and small forest spirits which come to life when energy centers in the forest begin to revive due to the first acknowledgment in the ecological and esthetic values of dead trees.

Script- abstract

Act II - Dead forest. Pulses of the dead trees begin to revive. It is not certain what is it. It is not human nor an animal or vegetation. It bears a different shape.

Several places in the forest begin to "breath" ( sound derived from breathing forms of Yoga, meant to strength and heal ) .

The movements are primary ones. The moment where two "pieces" of genius loci communicate, is the moment when it reflects the whole forest.

A girl is picking remains of forest- leaves and barks into boxes, for future generations. A library of leaves.