Private Project

Health 90

Six gamers meet for the first time in the sandbox video game Garry's Mod where they are free to build their environment. While playing, they chatter about the medium of video games, the freedom it allows and how it satisfies their needs. The game setting is mirrored then in the physical environment. We see gamers sitting together in the laboratory of the Faculty of Civil Engineering reflecting on their identity and social relationships while trying to understand what makes them happy. The film blurs the line between material and digital reality as protagonists alter their bodies, share adventures, and examine the sensations in their bodies.

With this documentary, Petra Mrša invites the viewer into the intimate lives of young people who are connected with the world through the digital medium. By stepping from behind the computer to in front of the camera the players are showing their strength to expose their opinions and vulnerability. Behind the film is long-term research into the media of video games and the entertainment industry, conducted in structured interviews with professionals who create games, those who look at them critically, and those who play them recreationally, professionally or addictively.

  • Petra Mrša
    Director
  • Petra Mrša
    Writer
  • Petra Petra
    Producer
  • Lorena Brnica
    Key Cast
  • lucebend
    Key Cast
  • Patrik Butorac
    Key Cast
  • R41N
    Key Cast
  • Scottnervozni
    Key Cast
  • Jakob Vučić-Šenperger
    Key Cast
  • Tomislav Sutlar
    Cinematographer
  • Denis Golenja
    Editor
  • Luka Gamulin
    Sound designer
  • Magdalena Ptiček
    Colorist
  • Ana Jurčić
    Sound recorder
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes 55 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    5,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Croatia
  • Country of Filming:
    Croatia
  • Language:
    Croatian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, HD
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Dani hrvatskog filma
    Zagreb
    Croatia
    May 15, 2023
Director Biography - Petra Mrša

Petra Mrša’s lens-based media work arises from initiating and facilitating situations that implement rule-based scenarios that takes art context as a site to broaden and challenge the experience of self. Through thought and physical experiments imposed on herself and/or collaborators, her art process opens up the space for creating new realities in which horizontality, radical hospitality, and the acceptance of the unknown shape interpersonal dynamics. Acquired embodied knowledge celebrates vulnerability and imagination while its documentation offers ground to connect to not just other humans but to other-than-human intelligences as well.

Petra’s interest in broadening the behavior through self-imposed instructions brought her into a three years-long research on the video game medium that additionally served as a site to open a conversation about the mechanisms of socialization in virtual reality. As an artist and educator with a background in social science and art studies, her multidisciplinary and collaborative approach can be seen as a sustainable community research that joins the seek to repair the current damage and transforms the conditions of coexistence.

Petra Mrša holds a master degree in Photography (from Academy of Dramatic Arts), Sociology (from Faculty of Humanities and Social Science), and Psychology (from University Department of Croatian Studies). She was a first generation of the postgraduate art program WHW Akademija initiated by curatorial collective What, How & for Whom/WHW and was nominated for the Radoslav Putar award 2020. She took part in numerous residencies among which are MuseumsQuartier Wien, Cité internationale des arts, CreArt Bluecoat Liverpool's contemporary arts centre. Her work was exhibited at the OSTRALE Biennale (Dresden, Germany), Museum Kunst+Wissen (Switzerland), FOTODOK (The Netherlands), Galerie L'inlassable (France) among many others. Her artworks are in several collections. She works at the Department for photography at the Academy of Applied Arts in Croatia.

Filmography

It’s so calm no one around, 5’
2019 AIR, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna, AT
2019 Gallery Flora, Dubrovnik, HR
2019 Gallery Spot, Zagreb, HR
2020 In the collection of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka

Filthy casual, 6’ 06’’
2022 Center for Contemporary Arts Celje, SI
2022 The Museum of Fine Arts Osijek, HR
2021 The OSTRALE Biennale, Dresden, DE
2020 35. Youth salon, Dom HDLU, Zagreb, HR
2020 35. Youth salon, Award The Museum of Fine Arts Osijek, Jury praise, HR
2019. Gallery Prozori, Zagreb, HR

Health 90, 20'
2022 Art kino Croatia, Rijeka, HR
2022 The Museum of Fine Arts Osijek, HR
2022 Center for Contemporary Arts Celje, SI
2023 The Art pavillion Zagreb, HR

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