kagablog

each era, each epoch, gets the philosopher it deserves; that is to say - the philosopher that it does not understand. the victorians had nietzsche - we have baudrillard.

The revolution of ‘lived experience’is without doubt the worst, the revolution which has swept away the secrecy with which everyone surrounded their own life and has transformed that life into a huge ‘reality show’.

what has been liberated by all the revolutions of desire, expression, fantasy and analysis is not the dramaturgy of the unconscious nor the theatre of cruelty, but the theatre of banality.

it is not the taboo on the drives at has been removed, but that on triviality, naivety, idiosyncrasy and idiosyncretism.

what has been liberated is not each person’s singularity, but their specific stupidity - that is to say, the stupidity they share with everyone else.

jean baudrillard
fragments

some have their wills, their lives, tortured by the fact of inhabiting a monstrous body.

for others, the opposite is the case: the difficulty arises from the fact that they inhabit such a beautiful body that they can produce nothing equivalent to themselves.

jea baudrillard
fragments

two interesting situations: when thought moves faster than language

and when language moves faster than thought.

the worst thing is when thought and language move at the same pace.

that is when boredom sets in.

jean baudrillard
fragments

Who would have believed it was possible to shoot a full-length feature film on a cellphone? Well, it’s now been done, and for the first time in the world.

The “bad boy” of South African cinema, Aryan Kaganof, shot SMS Sugar man entirely on Sony Ericsson W900i cellphones. Withdrawn from last year’s National Festival of the Arts, the controversial film had its premiere this year in Grahamstown.

The grainy, pixelated, night-time footage fits perfectly with the theme of a pimp, played by Aryan himself, and his “sugars” – prostitutes – as he hooks them up with “wallets” – men who are paying lots of money for sex.
It all takes place on Christmas eve, on the sleazy streets of Hillbrow. The sugars dabble with drugs as they cruise around in a 1966 Valiant ‘Valaza’, and of course, there is lots of sex. But there is also romance … and lots of chatting on cellphones!

This uniquely South African film stars, among others, John Matshikiza, Luthuli Dlamini, Jerry Mofokeng and Julius Moeletsi.

“I thought cinema in South Africa wasn’t the appropriate medium to represent who we are, as it is a mostly white thing. Then it struck me that a medium that Africans love more than any other is the cellphone,” said Aryan.

Shot in just 12 days, the whole film cost less than R1 million rand to produce, just a fraction of the R6 million that many low-budget local films cost. Hollywood pictures usually cost about R50 million and often go up to R100 million.

Graphics and special effects editor Jurgen Meekel believes that SMS Sugar man will revolutionize the future of film-making. “I think it will democratize film-making. After this film, no one can say that they cannot make a film because they don’t have the equipment,” said Jurgen.

Cinematographer Eran Tahor agreed: “I think that in South Africa, which offers great stories and great locations, but hardly any budget for films, nor distribution, this approach will stimulate others to make their films.”
Ster-Kinekor is distributing SMS Sugar man, and it will also be available on DVD soon.

For details, check http://kaganof.com/kagablog/category/films/sms-sugar-man/

derek davey

this article first appeared in the daily sun on friday 11 july 2008

credulity is so widespread, it is hard to get oneself suspected.

yet the pleasure of been unmasked is all.

jean baudrillard
fragments

the whites are gong to end up pulling out of south africa altogether, leaving the natives to their primal scene, the simian condition, condemned as they are to endemic aids and mutual extermination, thanks to the weapons the west generously continues to send them.

a whole continent is being sealed off - not to make it a protected sanctuary, but a sink to be done away with.

jean baudrillard
fragments

you tell me
the beginning of your music
has no end

you tell me
your music is eternal

I tell you
the end of my music
has no beginning

I must tell you
my music ended
when yours began
my music ends
when yours begins
my music will end
definitely and decidedly
and elegiacally
when your music will begin

your heart is already singing
a sweet love song with no end
eternal bliss
while my song ends
before it begins

everyone hides some measure of cruelty towards their subject. there is no point in imputing this cruelty to unconscious motivations or some trite psychology: it is a symbolic rule. analysis is part of the theatre of cruelty. destruction is part of the (loving) understanding of the object.

jean baudrillard
fragments

either you have not to be serious and seem it,
or to be serious and not seem it.
those who combine being serious
with seeming serious
are insignificant.

jean baudrillard
fragments

Ayant filmé cette performance actionniste suédoise, Aryan Kaganof récidive encore une fois dans le domaine de l’art corporel, qui est son domaine de prédilection depuis très longtemps. Ses anciens films classiques des performances jusqu’au-boutistes de Ron Athey, filmés dans les années 90 également par lui, ce sont des preuves de son obsession par cette discipline importante de l’art contemporain.

La performance filmée d’une manière très poétique par Kaganof est celle de Bo Cavefors, un père de l’art corporel suédois, qui a eu lieu en juin 2008 à Malmo. Elle s’intitule «Action numéro 43 » et elle est dans l’esprit de ses actions précédentes. Bo Cavefors est allongé par terre au début du film. Un zoom out de son visage est le point de départ de l’action. Le film est conçu comme un triptyque, à la manière d’une autre performance du même artiste. Elle a eu lieu en 2007 à Stockholm et elle était intitulée «Trois études sur une crucifixion », d’après la même œuvre de Francis Bacon.

Pendant la première séquence du film «Qualis Artifex Pereo » on voit trois actants autour de Cavefors, qui est l’actant central. Deux femmes et un homme l’observent silencieusement en train de se masturber et de se préparer lentement pour le point culminant de la troisième séquence. Pendant que Johanna Rosenqvist récite en suédois les vers magiques de «L’Anus Solaire » de Georges Bataille, Cavefors se caresse et commence des fellations avec l’homme Martin Bladh. Des mouvements voyeuristes de la caméra sur les parties de son corps et des autres actants deviennent insistants et excitants. L’extrait récité a été écrit en 1931 et ça commence ainsi :

«Quand j’ai le visage injecté de sang, il devient rouge et obscène.

Il trahit en même temps, par des réflexes morbides, l’érection sanglante et une soif exigeante d’impudeur et de débauche criminelle.

Ainsi je ne crains pas d’affirmer que mon visage est un scandale et que mes passions ne sont exprimées que par le Jésuve.

Le globe terrestre est couvert de volcans qui lui servent d’anus.

Bien que ce globe ne mange rien, il rejette parfois au-dehors le contenu de ses entrailles.

Ce contenu jaillit avec fracas et retombe en ruisselant sur les pentes du Jésuve, répandant partout la mort et le terreur » (op.cit, repris dans «Œuvres Complètes » éditions Gallimard, Paris, 1970, page 85).

Cette première séquence de préparation fait 25 minutes. Les textes de Martin Bladh suivent celui de Bataille, toujours récités par Rosenqvist. Tout au long du film il y a une musique discrète composée par l’actant Martin Bladh, le même compositeur stable des performances anciennes de Cavefors. A noter aussi que c’est le même Bladh le traducteur en suédois des extraits de Bataille.

La deuxième séquence fait 5 minutes et on y voit Cavefors et Rosenqvist en train de préparer leur partition au bureau, habillés comme tous les jours. La troisième serait, d’une certaine façon, le point culminant du plaisir puisque pendant cette partie du film la deuxième femme introduit ses talons dans le cul de Cavefors pendant que la musique devient plus aigue et monotone. 40 minutes est la durée totale de ce film – triptyque extraordinaire.

Le titre latin signifie “quel artiste meurt ” et ce sont les derniers mots de l’empéreur Néron avant de se suicider. Avec ce choix de titre, Kaganof aimerait nous rappeler que toutes les créations artistiques importantes se basent sur la passion folle, celle qui conduit à la mort.

dionysos andronis

the subject contemplated
subjectivity
the object confined itself
to only that which could be objectified
the protagonist was a prisoner of mirth,
and thus, laughingly, raised the entendre
double

in the back of the rapidly descending airborne vehicle
a baby was violently screaming
and being screamed back at
by a pair of ruthless incompetents
pretending to be its parents

nobody on board the almost landed flying vehicle
could be certain
if the autopilot had recovered
from its recent bout of haemmorhaging

the protagonist placed the object
on top of the subject

he did this lovingly,
but without the slightest
trace of desire

nonetheless,
it must be admitted
that from that moment on
all the dead people on that nearly crashed vehicle
came back to life

it was the day after the final reckoning with the new order
the christmas candles had all snuffed it
jackboot tactics were back in order

upstairs in the cockpit the autopilot
was strapped in and turned on
for one last bout of frenzy

the protagonist of this poem
watched all this happening
from his seat next to the
emergency exit

years later
the protagonist remembered
that most of the events herein recounted
had never really happened

and even those events
that could be proven
to have happened

only occurred
inside his
head

Neurosis is the past hating the present. neurosis brings me to a halt - as it does it forces me beyond myself under a threat of going under. hence the humanness in neurosis, as transfigured in myth, poetry, and drama. neurosis makes us heroes and saints when not making us invalids. in heroism or holiness, the element of neurosis represents the past, intervening like a limit (constraint) within which life becomes “impossible”.

georges bataille
on nietzsche

if you were happier
would you still be you

it’s the tudor pub and grill on the tuesday
don’t fucken kid yourself
the pub to be!!!!
serious
look boet, i’m 44 years old
ah you’ve got a bakkie, how silly of me to forget
let’s get this party started (etc…)

one gin too many
one pun too funny
their words are arrows
that strike to the marrow

his fist in her face
explodes womb-red behind her eyes
punch-drunk they pace
a grotesque tango of accusations and lies

her throat between his hands
he squeezes until all grows faint and dark
breathe.. breathe in.. breathing quicksand
the tiles so cold, the overhead light stark

somewhere someone’s banging on the door
she hoists herself up from the floor
his badge glints in the moonlight
thank you, inspector, everything’s alright

the next morning her smile is in place
she wears too much concealer on her face
her sons are laughing and rolling on the lawn
Saartjie is clattering dishes in the sink,
her headscarf bright as the dawn
tell me, Saartjie, as one who prays, do you think
that God’s grace truly goes on and on?

years later
i still occasionally
find pieces of you
in my hair

Aryan Kaganof’s film Velvet is based on a cut-up prose sequence called April in the Moon-Sun by poet Gary Cummiskey.

Composed in 2002 and originally published on the online literary journal, donga, April in the Moon-Sun is characterised by astonishing surreal images that shift between London and Johannesburg. Throughout its hallucinatory pages lurks the whore-spirit, Dirty Girl.

When donga went offline in 2006, Cummiskey published April in the Moon-Sun through his Dye Hard Press. The print run was limited to 100 copies, one of which was sent somewhat belatedly to Kaganof.

Towards the end of 2007 Kaganof announced his intention to make a short text film which would be his interpretation of the work. In January this year, Velvet was born.

Lasting 11 minutes and 32 seconds, containing electronic music by US experimental duo Matmos and culminating in what Kaganof describes as “physical poetry” by US porn star Taylor Rain, the film begins in total darkness with background sounds reminiscent of John Cage’s work, and which hint at what is to come.

From darkness – nothingness – is born the word, as the text of April in the Moon-Sun starts to appear on screen. The music of Matmos, a track titled Burroughs, reflects the cut-up nature of the work. The spirit of Dirty Girl is invoked as she starts to appear in the narrator’s brain.

From the word is born the image – the physical manifestation of Dirty Girl, played by Taylor Rain, who engages in some naughty, dirty exploration. Dirty Girl’s sudden appearance after about six minutes of text comes as a shock to our eyes just as her activities may come as a shock to our bourgeois sensibilities.

click for more information, and to book your tickets, here

par Cinéma Abattoir (Montréal)

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