Projected onto a large transparent screen bisecting the Schinkel Pavillon, the film Being Human (2019) forms a three-dimensional hypertext for a collection of original paintings and sculptures by some of Sri Lanka’s foremost contemporary artists, purchased from one of the capital Colombo’s most influential commercial galleries and presented by Thomas and Kuhlmann as a show-within-a-show. Shot in Sri Lanka, their film traverses documentary and fiction. It features Thomas’ uncle (a family hero who founded the Centre for Human Rights in Tamil Eelam), a well-known painter, a famous pop star and a young Tamil artist—some of them algorithmically synthesized characters—who take the viewer on an elliptical journey around the island, from the fallout of the Sri Lankan Civil War to the biennale founded in its aftermath. Exploring the interrelationship between contemporary art and human rights in an era of technological acceleration, Ground Zero reflects upon issues of individual authenticity, collective sovereignty and what it means to be "human" when machines are able to simulate human understanding ever more convincingly.
"GROUND ZERO"
by Christopher Kulendran Thomas + Annika Kuhlmann
Original Music and Sound Design by Aaron David Ross
at Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin
