A Sense of Warmth

SVEN JOHNE - A SENSE OF WARMTH, 2015, 15’35’’.

"I’m not going to make it. I’m a loser. Not good enough. I’m cold. Exhausted. Thirty-three years old, fucked by life.“ – These are the first sentences of Mindy, the protagonist from Sven Johne’s new video work "A Sense of Warmth". But Mindy is invisible throughout the whole movie, the viewer only hears her beautiful voice, her haunting report, underlaid with picturesque black/white images: Mindy's alleged escape from the digital working environment, her passage to a deserted island, her new life, from now on in accordance with herself and nature. "A Sense of warmth" is tempting, because the film catapults the viewer into the supposed "real" life—a paradise—a life without exploitation, war, ecological destruction. In short: a life without capitalism. Mindy designs an almost Biedermeier utopia, and the viewer is left to believe in what she says. This escapism has a price however, and Mindy, the beautiful voice, is willing to pay for it ...