16mm, 2009 - 2011

Entering a tropical forest can be a daily necessity, an adventurous, sensual experience, or it can coincide with a struggle for survival. For many, particularly those accustomed to the urban dimension, it may be approached as an encounter with an unknown dimension, capable of eliciting the most ancestral fears. Daniel Steegman’s 16 mm confronts viewers with a situation that is simultaneously physical and cultural. Immersed in a small, dark room, they find themselves catapulted into another dimension - that of a forest with no way out - the image of which, transmitted by a 16 mm film projector, unwinds incessantly. Paying attention seems inevitable: the slow and constant advance of the movie camera within the forest offers the changing vision of nature in preponderance, which the eye seeks to decipher as it also is on the lookout to catch possible threatening signals. At the same time, the constant rhythm with which the image is presented to the glance abstracts the experience from the specific theme, posing questions that relate to cinema and its structure. [...]