Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, 2011

Why do we always desire something? Why do we incessantly beg? And again, why do we want above all what we cannot hold onto? There are so many questions that arise, looking at Mircea Cantor’s Sic Transit Gloria Mundi (Thus Passes the Glory of the World, 2012). In the film, which is only a few minutes long, a woman ignites the wire of a fuse and distributes it among a group of people before her, apparently beggars, who humbly long for something. Kneeling in a circle, their faces on the ground, each member of this silent assembly extends one hand in which he accepts the flame that rapidly traverses the fuse, while a rhythmic sound punctuates the fleeting passage. The fire finally reaches the far end of the fuse, burning out before the woman’s eyes and quickly vanishing without a trace. [...]