The Red Car is Bartek

4 channel video installation, 8 mim
2021

Since the winter of 2019 - 2020 Jorik Amit Galama and I have been researching the effects of the mysterious car crash from 2002 in which my brother died. This research has led us in many different directions, from interviews with people involved in the accident and its aftermath, to performative interventions in my family.

Featuring interdisciplinary collaboration with forensic car crash reconstruction experts, and consultations with a fortune-teller who predicted my brother’s death, this research comes into fruition in two media formats: as a documentary titled “Insurance Against Meteorites” and as a video installation titled “The red car is Bartek”

This four-channel video installation juxtaposes four different versions of the car crash. On the three main screens the narrative of the mother, the fortuneteller, and the forensic car reconstruction expert are presented together with equal importance - each representing distinct realms of knowledge. Short interview fragments culminate in animations reconstructing the version of each speaker. Besides these three main narratives, the fourth spatially distanced video represents the harmful discourse of small-town gossip that unleashed in 2002. The common thread in this multiplicity of perspectives is a story about the devastating effects of institutional corruption and neglect on the mourning process.

Concept development and direction:
Natalia Śliwowska & Jori Amit Galama

Editing:
Natalia Śliwowska & Jori Amit Galama

Sound Design:
Adriaan Bon

3D reconstruction 1:
Baan Hofman Ongevallenanalyse

3D reconstruction 2, 3, 4:
Igor Bobeldijk (modelling) & Natalia Śliwowska (directing)