Catalogue > At random

"When external forces act on us, we retreat. We create a mental space. There, we can play.” Filmed on various location throughout Europe with the help of the young talent grant (Mondriaan fund), Safe Place is an atmospheric music piece set into an immersive visual experience. With the protagonists’ actions in nature and abstract elements, the video is a continuous flow of introspection. The landscapes suggest emotional streams of our inner world. The people are showing themselves in their playful, yet emotionally charged state of mind. They interact with nature by means of private rituals to release their hidden selves. Safe Place is an exploration into the lurking depths of our minds aiming to push the spectator into their own inner hidden places. Duration: 14 min Directed, filmed and edited by: Iztok Klančar Music: Lifecutter Starring: Atanas Petrov, Aphra Tesla, Aljaž Celarc Many thanks to: Simon Tanšek, Neven M. Agalma, Ariadne Urlus, Rob Philip, Gerda Postma, Antoine Latipau, Eva Pavlič Seifert, Ljubica Klančar, Andreea Dumitriu, Perri MacKenzie, Suzanne Somer, Rudnik Trbovlje Hrastnik, Fotoklub Hrastnik, The Bookstore Foundation and the cast.

I graduated as photographer at the KABK in The Hague in 2012 with the series My Men. It was was presented as a photo book and a video installation with sound. Although in its conception this work was documentary, the story was edited as a music video. Both edits, that of the book as well as the video have got a fictional turn to it. The video proved to be versatile, suitable for a gallery setting (GEM, Nederlands Fotomuseum), as well as a cinema (Het Nutshuis) or a temporary pop-up space (Metro station in Amsterdam). The next couple of years I continued to develop both video and photography, experimenting with different ways of presentations. Making snapshots was an integral part of my process. It enabled me to make order of the world and then edit out a theme. The following work was called Afterlife, with a broader theme of finding oneself in a changed world. It is about finding new structures, new rhythm, new logics to life. A life that seeks not to be conformed by our times where we are forced to buy ourselves an ideal lifestyle. Making Afterlife was about discovering a world that is mine, a new, yet familiar place. It resulted in a selection of sequences, printed on long paper rolls and a publication dummy which was also used as a portable installation. A body of work, called Reverence started to emerge from the second half of 2014 on. With Reverence I took further steps, making a music video for Lifecutter and exhibiting it in Showroom MAMA, together with photographs. The photographic part of the installation were diary snapshots. These were an initial step in my visual research, subject matters I narrowed down in the video. While photographs were an eclectic mixture of various encounters, impressions and landscapes, the video zoomed into a rather physical encounter with an attempt to visually depict the mental consequences of it. At that time, I also started with a short performance piece where I used video visuals as a backdrop and ambient. The texts are thoroughly edited diary entries, bundled into stories that convey an intense journey into myself, a deep introspection of what it means to be a sexual and sensitive being. When I obtained the young talent grant by Mondriaan Fund in 2016 I edited the massive library of snapshots into a new body of work, called Journal. The pictures are a relentless and a repetitive loop of same experiences, scavenging for endless impressions, for attention and love. Besides being shown online on different blogs, I also made a limited edition of the publication (shown at several photography events in Slovenia). Currently I am working on an edition of prints. With the help of the Mondriaan young talent grant in 2016 I filmed on different locations in Europe with various people from which the short film Safe Place was assembled. Safe Place is an atmospheric music piece set into an immersive visual experience. With the protagonists’ actions in nature and abstract elements, the video is a continuous flow of introspection. The landscapes suggest emotional streams of our inner world. The people are showing themselves in their playful, yet emotionally charged state of mind. They interact with nature by means of private rituals to release their hidden selves. In the lengthy process of making Safe Place, I significantly upgraded my technical skills - the camerawork, as well as editing. I learned how to work intensely one-on-one with the performers and create a safe space for experimentation within a set of parametres, such as an activity taking place, the styling and the location. A specialisation of mine has become setting a sensorical atmosphere by choosing the right environment in the outdoors, as well as specific light. Safe Place and other work I made subsequently has been used as visuals for the shows of Lifecutter. I also collaborated with the fashion Bas Kosters, making a set of visuals and social media videos for his last collection, called Hope. Acknowledging the queer feel of both of our work, I directed Bas into a comic depiction of sensuality (with food) which is one of my personal fetishes. The camera work, editing and sound are effectively adjusted to function well as visuals during his fashion show and on social media. This proves how my work is versatile and can be shown in different places, far outside the gallery world. After the young talent grant, I started teaching and coaching students of the department of Fashion Design at the HKU in Utrecht. This year, I also started teaching A/V at the department of Photography at the KABK in The Hague. My general approach to teaching is very flexible - the story or the atmosphere are the primary motivation on building of a film work. I never impose a certain format upon my students, but still teach them how to apply the basic ingredients of filmmaking to their projects, such as storyboard, camerawork, editing and sound.