4:48, dance film projection

Introduction to Matija Ferlin's 4:48

By Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola

Berlin, June 2005

Prologue performed by Jadranka Dokic

When I first saw 4:48 I hardly knew Matija. If the trust implied in showing me his then unfinished work surprised me, I was disarmed, while watching it, by the naked and straight forward courage with which its images were inviting me to such an intimate space without therefore forcing me into the role of the voyeur. Matija's work made me. not the witness of his broken and heartrending journey, but his travel partner. And I saw myself following him not through the images on the screen, but through the physicality that transcended them, the body's flesh and texture printing itself raw into my eyes.

How does one talk about pain without demanding pity from the listener, or from himself? Where do we look for the words that would best tell us about it? Which language should be preferred, chosen? How do we let our mouth, tongue, body, articulate it into sentences? How do we exorcise the losses, the heartbreaks, the memories, the nightmares? How much of our lives do they impregnate? What brings us to finally need to detach ourselves from them? Is such a detachment complete, even possible at all?

If I find myself so inept at answering any of these questions, I am overwhelmed by the lack of affectation, and by the austerity with which Matija faces them in 4:48, with an honesty and integrity devoid of any narcissism or exhibitionism.