The day we surrender to the air.

The Day We Surrender to the Air

September 7th, 2011

The Day We Surrender to the Air Trilogy
Episode III
The Legend of Billy MacLean from Norway
Antonio Jose Guzman, The Netherlands, 2011
Color, HDV, 16:9, Pal, Dolby Surround

This short video fragment is part of the last chapter of the Trilogy “The Day We surrender to the air” and project Piertopolis in which I travel to different parts of the world in search of my DNA ancestral origins. This last episode is called The Legend of Billy MacLean, to honor a mythic figure of the Caribbean history of my home Panama. The travel of this mythic figure coincidence with my DNA ancestry.

The images of the documentary will be used in a multimedia installation for project Piertopolis.

Piertopolis is an International art project to link and engage people from all around the world to an utopian nation. By means of participation and collective interaction with the installations and website, we are offering a platform for people to connect to a new visual imaginary network.

Piertopolis as a project will present two sculptures who are part of a monumental installation to be presented next year in Den Hague’s Gemak in De Vrije academie and in Rush Arts Gallery in NYC.

Sculpture #1 Influenced by African Art and Sculpture # 2 Influenced by Guzman Expedition to the Polar Circle are presented in different spaces, The Tolhuistuin and De Kromhout Museum, both connected to the harbor of Amsterdam, in this sculptures/instllation the artists play with a multi dynamic monumental architectonic sculptures that will be part of the installation in Den Hague and NYC 2012. In the sculptures are images of Guzman’s expedition to the Polar circle, in this videos and photos the artist evoke Joseph Beuys ideas of “artists as a shamans and a social reformers”.

Piertopolis call for an utopian great mental migration to Piertopolis, the Ideal City, The Utopian sculptures of Piertopolis are an attempt to improve the conventional city, like this the artist try to find a way for a transcultural humanism.

The Day We Surrender to the Air
Antonio Jose Guzman, The Netherlands, 2009
Color, HDV, 16:9, Pal, Dolby Surround

Surrendering to the air means floating. It means unlimited movement, and this is precisely what director Antonio Jose Guzman does in his project The Day We Surrender to the Air. Guzman got his DNA analyzed in the United States and discovered that he is of African, Central and North American, and European lineage. His genetic identity was based on the diasporas of his forefathers. So how did his parents end up in Panama? In this first part of what ultimately should become a trilogy, Guzman offers up an experimental mix of footage from places where he has roots with interviews and dance. His trip around the world and quest to find himself opens up a wider perspective on the countless surprising connections between the people of all continents. The question arises as to what nationality actually means. Is it anything more than a passport? After all, Guzman feels more linked to his African ancestors than his Dutch ones. How do the various elements of his identity relate to one another? Starting with Guzman’s own DNA, his “atom,” as he calls it, the film opens a window to the world.
IDFA 2009

In The Day We Surrender to the Air, I use myself as an example of the migration between the so-called Old and New Worlds. My identity is the product of my ancestors’ traveling experiences through Polynesia, Eurasia, Mesopotamia, Africa and eventually to America and Europe. This implicates that my genetic identity is based on the various Diasporas of my ancestors, and thus on the decisions they made in migrating to some place or to another.
A.J. Guzman

Links
Surrender at the IDFA
Surrender Kill your Darlings at the IDFA

Official Selection 2009 - 2010:

IDFA Amsterdam International Documentary Festival

Amsterdam Film Experience - Cine Trans Europe

Thessaloniki (Greece) Documentary Festival Images of the 21st Century

8ème Festival International Signes de Nuit Festival de création audiovisuelle et cinématographique à Paris, France

Maison de l’Amérique Latine, Paris, France

Africa in the Picture Film festival, Amsterdam

Noordelijk Film Festival, Leeuwarden, NL

The Aesthetics of Surrender

April 25th, 2010

Spring 2010

12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

Antonio Jose Guzman’s documentary The Day We Surrender To The Air is about the director’s efforts to trace his genetic identity and see to what extent it influences who he is. An analysis of his DNA showed that the director can trace his origins to Africa, Central and South America, as well as Sephardic Jewish Europe.

This documentary, screened at the 12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is part of a trilogy. The first part is a video where the director presents the cultural identity of his ancestors. In the second part, he looks at the unexpected similarities he noticed in the peoples of various continents where he searched for his roots.

In the third part, which has yet to be made, Antonio Jose Guzman will continue his search into his Jewish Sephardic past, enriching it with images from Spain, Portugal and Israel. “The fact that I end up in places that have been marked by a strong Sephardic community presence such as Amsterdam and Thessaloniki is interesting”, he commented. He believes that “descent influences what every person is: what we are in reality is ‘international individuals’. We must remember our common descent, which is from Africa”, he stressed. As he explained, in spite of the fact that there have been many films made in the past about multiculturalism and identity, “there is always room for one more film which essentially says that all people are one family – especially in our time, when extreme right-wing elements are increasing in societies all over the world”.

Having grown up in Panama, a country which has lived the dominance of the USA for almost a century, the director admits that his country is: “now nationalistic and chauvinistic”. However, he remains optimistic, saying: “in Europe and Latin America people are struggling to become European. Perhaps this is why they are more European than those who are born in Europe”.