About this video
Credits Sound Design: Moullinex All the rest: João Vaz Oliveira Full project: behance.net/vazoliveira | www.vazoliveira.com ABSTRACT Six years ago, I thought of making a video with which I could fully identify myself. Without rules, without prejudice, without fear. Where I could be free regarding the narrative, either conceptual or audio and visual. I have often been committed, motivated, inspired; but I have also felt uninspired, discouraged, stuck. I let time go by. Often the seed falls on the earth and doesn’t bear fruit because our day-to-day routines smother it. The Covid-19 pandemic led us to a sudden arrest in our lives. It made me stop and helped me take a step back so that I could better focus on my goals. And that was when I realized that I was a part of a cycle. A creative cycle that hides its beauty in wonderment, but also in blockage and in emptiness. The beauty of error but also the beauty of being a fearless pioneer, of experimenting, feeling, provoking, sketching, and, bottom line, creating. This video is also a love letter to all of you who have been inspiring me. The Cycle Idea -> Wonderment -> Block -> Emptiness -> Light Idea An idea emerges. An idea that erupts, that enlightens, that prompts a new journey, a new challenge. That idea comes from inspiration, from knowledge, or from something that happened. It is a shock, an electrical discharge like thunder, a concentration of energy, of heat, that is born from the transcending world into the physical world, palpable, and carries us into a feeling of levity, of levitation. Wonderment It comes through the mind and goes through every pore, artery, feeling, and emotion. It is at that moment that the desire of making something new, different, expansive, is born. It seems like everything flows like a river, every idea makes sense, every system finds its correspondent, every thought is palpable, unique, achievable, and necessary. Like a passion that is fully corresponded, thus creating expectation. Block The barrier comes from various events in daily life. As if we were a limited deposit that needs to distribute our matter by several tasks, therefore distracting us from the true need that is the source of sources. The first type of immobilization begins to emerge: Does this make sense? And why does this question appear? Maybe because of our pride or of the thirst we have for wanting to be more and better? I do not know. What I know is that there is always a first block that leads us to question everything. Suddenly, that shock of adrenaline that made us wake up from our sleep, from the quotidian, vanishes as if it were burning paper. How strange it is to go through opposites like this, so quickly, light/shadow, white/dark, thin/thick, high/low. The truth is that it seems that a magnet that slyly attracts some material, and when we realize it we are already surrounded by other materials that we didn’t even know existed. A confusion, a nest that imprisons us, ties us, grips us, and makes us abort, invalidate, that primordial force. The repetition, layers, and layers that smother us, that freeze us, giving way to anxiety, to impatience, to frustration, to worry, to fear. Emptiness Lost. Emptiness. Echo. An obscure force that makes us blind and willing to give up. Inertia, as if we were in an aimless journey, in a boat with no direction. At this stage, that shock of energy still leads us to try and fight, but in the position of someone who is defeated. It seems that we are so close to seeing something but we do not see what is in front of our noses. It seems easy, and at the same time difficult to achieve; it seems palpable but at the same time inexistent, slippery. This feeling leads us to give up, to set aside, to avoid, to lag. Light/Revelation The interpretation of obstruction – and even of its admiration and fascination – is the vital key of the process. To admire the work in its essence, without prejudice, without preservation, without malice, without hidden intentions. This is the secret that gives way to satisfaction, to light, to brightness, to liberation, to consolation, to the strength, to the beauty of creation.
About João Vaz Oliveira
