Videos
2004
El milagro secreto
Video made, in 2004, with the support of
the Fundación internacional Jorge Luis Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina
→ fundacionborges.com.ar
and the Jelení Gallery, Center for contemporary art, Prague, Czech Republic
→ www.galeriejeleni.cz
Text: excerpts from El milagro secreto (The Secret Miracle) by Jorge Luis Borges
Image and sound edition: Natalia Blanch
Music: Más poco album by Zort
Voice: Bonnie Crawford
El milagro secreto, digital video 12'23'', 2004
The video is based on the short story El milagro secreto (The secret miracle) by Jorge Luis Borges. The story happens in Prague, during the nazi occupation. Hladik is taken prisoner and will be shot in ten days. He asked God to give him one more year to finish his drama The enemies. When he was going to be killed, in the time between the order and its execution (the time that lasted a drop of rain to slip in his face), Hladik experienced a year in his mind and completed his drama.
In the story we witness Hladik's mental process — the imagined death before the fixed day, the time experience during the days in prison, the need to accomplish his drama to justify his existence. The video relates the invisible labyrinth that Hladik thoroughly thought facing his death and destiny to the meticulous process of making the image. —
