Manu Arregui

Thirst for the infinite. 2005

Vídeo monocanal, 5,18 min.

In Thirst for the infinite the author appropriates the formal elements of cinematographic melodrama, for which he has counted among other resources with the collaboration of Elsa Fábregas, actress whose voice belongs to the collective subconscious of the Spanish for having dubbed great classic celluloid actresses in mythical roles, such as the heroine of Gone with the Wind, 1939.
The video proposes a narration on several levels where romantic topics on human emotions and reflections on art, reality and its simulation converge.

Values ​​such as sacrifice, suffering, fighting in a hostile environment, are resurrected in an imaginary that reminds us of the validity of the parameters of “romanticism” and its resurgence in media discourses, albeit in new forms: television, advertising, video games …

The landscape and references to romantic ideas are also evident. Nature becomes the only source of purity and truth and at the same time an uncontrollable character subject to its own laws. On the other hand, as in other creations by Arregui, the digital tool itself is referred to as the generator of “new lives”, of “fatherless” characters who once launched into hyperspace wander aimlessly … In her words, the mother refers to this artificial nature: “But darling, look behind the scenery … Do you feel the cold of this lying snow? … and my hands are not hands …” And the concept of eternity that these natures have in the face of the finiteness of beings of meat and bone. “Another lap, my son. We are here again …”