Carnage

The cruel and focussed inability to envision the life of trees, or the other?

Trees are alive, however seemingly invisible to humans. Mycorrhizal networks are a symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi. The fine, hairlike root tips join together with microscopic fungal filaments, facilitating communication between trees. From out of the earth they stand like 'the original temple', long massive pillars holding up the canopy of the sky. The wind leads as the leaves and branches dance in unison. Immobile they exist in another scale of time, indifferent to humans.
Inside the trees, there are vessels that transport water and nutrients, the xylem. The cracking, popping, irregular sounds are not gunshots, but the release of air moving inside these inner channels. This ultrasonic sound is not audible for the human ear, except when transposed and amplified. It is the slightly eerie sound of trees living, providing water and nutrients to their cells. 
The cover of brilliant nature is contradicted by the colors of the forest, smudged green, and wood under a clouded sky. Trees have been marked with paint: orange, blue and white, sometimes stripes sometimes crosses, awaiting the arrival of the machines. Fast, efficient, and displaying immediate force, cutting through flesh. A violent trail of destruction. Limbs. Body fluids. Shred internals. Grey omissions appear in the sky, as the trees stand partially disconnected, disabled. 
Music flowing from the mind echoes sadness throughout the body. Melancholic and empathic beauty veils reality. The composition shrinks the carnage to acceptance, a poor excuse.

  • Nikolaas Boucquey
    Director
    Darkentries, The public is not present
  • Nikolaas Boucquey
    Writer
  • Nikolaas Boucquey
    Producer
  • Nikolaas Boucquey
    Composer
    Darkentries, The public is not present
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Music Video, Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Documentary, posthuman ecology
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes 2 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 16, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    900 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Belgium
  • Country of Filming:
    Belgium
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Full HD
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 2 14 17 International Film Festival
    Paramakudit
    India
    December 1, 2021
    Winner Award Best Sound Design
  • Toronto Independent Film Festival of Cift
    Toronto
    Canada
    December 17, 2021
    Official Selection Best Environmental Short
  • Niagara International Film Festival
    Niagara Falls
    United States
    December 23, 2021
    Official Selection Best Music in Short
  • Vancouver Independant Short Festival
    Vancouver
    Canada
    January 21, 2022
    Official selection for Best Experimental
Distribution Information
  • Short Film Taking Time
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Nikolaas Boucquey

CHRONO

2021 Short Film Taking Time: screening short film/performance
2020 Short film/music videos
2019 Docent Energy Management at HOWEST University of Applied Sciences
2016 Bachelor of Arts in Art Sciences UGent (cum laude), Major Performance and Media Art
1994 Designer, project manager, manager
1993 Master in Bio-engineering sciences
1980 Poetry / Photography / Music
1969 Birth

PORTFOLIO

@SCREENING-PERFORMANCE@
Short Film Taking Time: short film/performance inspired by Trienal Brugge on 20-24/07/2021 and 6-7/11/2021

@SHORT-FILMS@
The public is not present (2021), semi-finalist Indie Short Fest - L.A. Film Festival
Carnage (2021)
Darkentries (2021), semi-finalist ATFF - Toronto
Exoplanet (2020)

@VIDEO-POEMS@
KoudHelderSpiegelWarm (2021)
Forlorn fields (2020)
Papillon (2020)
The writer (2020)

@MUSIC-VIDEOS@
Wolf’s run (2020)
Online poetry: insert everywhere (2017)

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

= Artist-explorer.
From personal and on site-specific experiences, to the larger contemporary world. The process of creation is an exploration. Deejaying media and performing art, audio-visual art, poetry. I imagine for your pleasure, surprise, and awareness. Teasing to explore.
= Accessible.
The audio-visual is rhythmic, colorful without hiding for dissonance. Sequences speak an intuitive non-reflective language, and open the senses, breaking down chronological time.
= Dada.
There are layers, and topics to be discovered. At present my dada is posthumanism, climate change, media, human drivers, the changing interactions between public spaces/private spheres/virtuality.
= Onsite objets-trouves.
Fragments of images, words, sound, music, text are objets-trouvés captured on the spot. The transcription of a comic, but also tragic existence, by meeting objects. Recruiting the sites’ specificity as one of the major actors. Before and after the site, there is the digging up of information, then there is the meeting and exploring, looking for experiences, languages, awareness, and truths....and eventually letting go to imagine another site.
= Avant-garde
Free transversal expression beyond the formal but inside conceptual frames, intentionally questioning contemporary audio-visual language and form.
= Humour
Connotation, depth, and intensity however seasoned with critical surrealist humor.
= Invite.
Let yourself be inspired beyond the obvious...My work is not mine, it is also yours. It is an invite, not a finished object. The direction and pace of that possible journey are yours to choose...