Like a Tear in the Ocean 2007
History

— Feeling (selected, flagged/drawn)

friendship / hostility
— tenderness / anger

peace / battle
— love / hate

integration / expulsion
— trust / horror

reconciliation / pursuit
— courage / cowardice

reunification / division
— calmness / madness

creation / destruction
— joy / tears

birth / death
— uncertainty / doubt

Flag signalling alphabet: shipping, international communication of information using visible signals, with each letter being assigned a differ-
ent position of the arms = flag signalling. Film as the medium: a night recording with flags made of reflective material. The moving flags appear to glow in the dark. A single person communicates from the loneliness of the night and is finally depending on his counterpart, the receiver, and that he will be able to decode his message. This decoding depends on the code of the specific culture. The flag waver’s speech is also pursued to a certain extent ad absurdum as it is not information that is being communi-
cated, but feelings. The ethic of understanding requires us to argue and not to condemn, that is to say, not to interiorise tolerance. If we discover that we are all fallible, fragile, inadequate, flawed beings, then we can discover our recipro-
cal need for understanding. (Edgar Morin)

The title of the work “Like a Tear in the Ocean” draws on Manès Sperbers’ trilogy of novels which describes the political landscape of Europe between 1930 and 1945. The spiritual adventure of the Revolutionary holds centre stage. As Sperber wrote in his preface, ‘I have no certainties to offer; I only make questions ready for decision’: this project is an attempt of an approach.
Acknowledgements
Andrea Pesendorfer