Camilla Figenschou
Bue og pil
The exhibition «Arrow and Bow» by Camilla Figenschou consists of a video installation based on her first feature film, Bow and Arrow (2016).
The installation is made in collaboration with Astrid Skumsrud Johansen.
Bow and Arrow takes place at a centre in Bø in Vesterålen specializing in horse-assisted psychotherapy. With the film, Figenschou investigates the relationship between humans and horses, while also linking the experiences that arise to a specific place. In the film, she blends real people who are connected to the centre with an actress, Anna Katharina Haukeland, who plays the character Mia. Mia arrives from outside and visits the centre periodically to undergo horse-assisted psychotherapy. The situations in the film are inspired by what Figenschou observed over time during the development of the project.
Being deeply present is an attitude at the film’s core that also becomes the starting point for its visual concept and a method during filming. The camera becomes an extension of the gaze of the audience, a character who seeks to free himself from a constructed narrative development. Cinematographer Øystein Mamen lingers, searches, and observes freely through long takes. The situations play out within set frames and give a feeling that the real is elevated in the fictional and the fictional collapses in the real.
In the video installation shown at North Norwegian Art Centre, she takes it a step further, where the recording situation also becomes part of this elevation and simultaneous collapse.
Arrow and Bow explores the relationship between people, horses and the surroundings. Figenschou's style is linked to a trend within contemporary film known as sensory realism, where sensory experience is at the center. Instead of psychologically rooted narratives, this approach emphasizes moods. Slow pace, sparse cuts, the absence of traditional plot structures and the use of amateur actors contribute to creating a sense of closeness and authenticity.
In the project, Figenschou has conceptualized the camera gaze, in collaboration with cinematographer Øystein Mamen, as a separate character, with self-will and empathy for other characters and the residents of the farm. This gaze focuses on the sensual – it seeks to awaken something in the audience, rather than representing something to it. With the exception of the character Mia, played by a professional actor, all the other actors are real people connected to the farm, playing versions of themselves in front of the camera. This cinematic strategy can be linked to a continuation of classic film realism and can be traced back to the 1920s. With the film, Figenschou defines a framework for action and dialogue, but refrains from controlling the actors in detail. Instead, she allows them to retain a certain degree of freedom, so that the interaction between them can develop naturally. The script is a combination of scenes inspired by real events and staged sequences, where reality and fiction merge.
Camilla Figenschou is a filmmaker and visual artist educated from Konstfack in Stockholm, Film Studies at Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, and at Nordland College of Art and Film. She works mainly with narrative film and photography. In 2010 she debuted with her first short film “The beginning of no night”. Her next short film “To open, to see”, was widely shown internationally, and won the prestigious Terje Vigen award at the Grimstad short filmfestival in 2012. In 2016 she debuted with the feature length film “Bow and Arrow”. Figenschou´s works are characterised by placing fictitious characters within real contexts. Setting the stage for situations where a loss of control is allowed to happen. In the process she explores with great curiosity our relationship to desire, boundaries, and nature.