>>>Johanna Billing / back to texts

Text to Radikal supplement/Istanbul biennial by Mika Hannula 27.9.05 Sentimental Season, Johanna Billingšs Magical World At far left corner on the ground floor at the old tobacco factory site of this years biennial we find something strange. Something that somehow does not fit in. We confront with a solemn and beautiful video loop focusing on a group of children practicing and playing a very particular song. What we see is something most of us deliberately wish to avoid and not to pay attention to. It is a sentimental season during which basically everyone is all of a sudden looking for a handkerchief. We have a surprised audience with slightly wet eyes and certainly a warm hearth. But hold on? What is going on? Did I say a childrenšs music group? A set up of oh so lovely kids rehearsing an uplifting song in a cultural centre that could be located anywhere and everywhere. We see their puzzled but incredible serious faces, we sense their excitement, the ackwardness of trying to perform in a language which is not theirs. We follow the movement of the camera, we adjust to the style of editing that borrows so very non-chalantly from classical pop/rock videos. The linear narrative is broken, but the wholeness of the event is framed and secured by the factual duration of the song. There is a beginning and an end - and the never ceasing repetition of the loop. And yes, in-between you notice the process slowly building up, brought together with an almost caressing kind of editing that smoothly flows from one face to another, one significant detail to the next. Is this not a little too much? Too close to something that for a good reason is labelled as social pornography? Too much like a product made for all grand-dads and grand-mamas in the imaginary public sphere? With her film Magical World Johanna Billing has managed to create something of a fail-free heart-breaker, a real deal tear jerker. But contrary to our deep-seated cynical inclinations, there is absolutely nothing wrong with her style, her attitude and the result as a film. On the contrary, it gives us a wonderful example how contemporary art can steal back themes and moments that we have thought to be lost for ever. The crucial difference between Billingšs work and the flood of sentimental images connected to children we have no choice but to witness day in day out is the following point: whereas the mainstream images of children are mostly instrumentalized for commercial use, Billingšs piece is not a product. She is not desperately trying to sell us anything. She does not promote anything. She does not articulate a social issue or a political agenda. Her film is a work of art. As an art work, Magical World is not holy, it is not above us. It is not detached from our daily realities. It is here and now. It is here and now in a way that is simply amazing. It does not shout, it does not beg. It is a film that achieves a rare atmosphere of its own kind and make. It is unique in its means of having the courage to get closer and closer to the sentimental season it wants to address and cherish. I believe Magical World is a very brave work. It is an example of civil courage that goes against the tide of our times. It does not oppose commercialization of our life-worlds. However, neither does it passively just stand-by to be bought, sold and recycled. Instead, Billing offers us an alternative. She shows us how it is indeed not only possible but even preferable to deal actively with these major concepts and feelings that seem to be so cute and phoney but nevertheless important. We need them back. We need these sensations and words for our use right here, right now. We need to have an alternative ways of defining what is hope, seen both individually and collectively. We have to be able to provide alternative versions of love and hate, misery and pleasure. Versions which are not flat one-sided slogans, but entities that are characterized with inner tensions and loving conflicts. The extra special special effect of Billingšs film is obviously the song she chose to cover. With her choice, Billing is following, funny enough, the steps of that rather famous director called Tarantino. Both of them re-activate songs from the past that deserve to be again heard and recognized. With Billingšs work, the original song was written by black American singer Sidney Barnes the year 1968. A song that definitely deserves to be born again. A song because of which I cannot but ask for help. It is a wish. Someone somewhere out there. Please please mister or misses postman. Does anyone have a copy to spare or borrow of the original version of the Magical World? Mika Hannula <<<