Trailer, Video, 01’03”
Once upon a time, there was a tiny valley surrounded by the concrete mountains. The valley was home to many different species. Various stories and peculiar love affairs took place there.
The first chapter of the video installation The Valley of the Uncanny Lovers is written by a student of the faculty of dramaturgy in Belgrade Mitar Milecevic. The story tells us about a tree leaf called Tinny. The leaf lives on a tree surrounded by concrete mountains. One day it falls in love in a platonic way with a flower that lives on the ground and to meet the flower, the leaf does everything to get down to the ground, asking for the help of the wind to take it away from the life in the tree to reach the flower at any cost on earth. After many attempts, thanks to the wind, the leaf manages to fall from the tree and get closer to the much sought-after love. When it reaches the ground, the leaf realizes that it is not a flower, but a lifeless lithium battery. Even though the battery does not respond to the leaf’s questions, it decides to live with it until the end.
Sometimes fairy tales present more opportunities for creating uncanny feelings than there are in real life. How to create a fairy tale about the Uncanny Lovers and the Valley of the Lithium mines? Serbia has vast lithium deposits near the western city of Loznica, where a mining project being developed by the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has been a perennial political fault line in the Balkan country in recent years. However, it has proved unpopular with Serbians worried about pollution, public health and the environmental impact of the project.
As is often the case, artist Driant Zeneli’s works come from co-creations, this time with KCB’s invitation to collaborate with a group of students of the Faculty of Dramaturgy in Belgrade.
The first chapter is realized in the area of New Belgrade called Bežanijski Blokovi, specifically in block nr. 61 built in 1975-76. In total, 14 solitary blocks were built in the block.
2023, 07’12’’, Two-channel video installation, Courtesy the Artist.
This is the I Chapter of the trilogy: The Valley of the Uncanny Lovers (2023 – ….)