titel: Cueva(no)

director: Anna Berkhof

género: Experimental

banda sonora: Red Brut

made for the exhibition El Temporal

year: 2022

Cueva(no) is a sound and video piece made by Red Brut (Marijn Verbiesen) and Anna Berkhof. In the form of a videoclip they reflect on the concept of “the carrier bag theory of fiction” of Ursula K. Le Guin. In this essay Le Guin challenges the notion that the first man made tool was a knife, axe or similar object for fighting and killing. The first humans lived an 80% vegetable-based life, sustained by collecting things from nature. Only 20% was based on killing animals. Because of this Le Guin proposes that a carrier bag or basket is a much more likely first tool created by men. And if the stories about man’s interaction with nature would start from this point of departure, maybe the way we speak about nature would be very different.

Verbiesen and Berkhof take this concept to one of the many caves of the Miera Valley, Cantabria. Here prehistorical people lived, gathered, made art, rituals and music. They follow in their footsteps, and record their experience in the deep shade of Cueva la Puntilla. Sounds and sights that have not changed for centuries are combined with contemporary techniques and objects to form a musing on the deep darkness, the passing of time, and the relation with the landscape around.