Escalating perception / The Path

Shot on location near Montreal, this video shows – split on two linguistic layers – two aspects of threat in meeting an unknown on an escalator: a physical and a visual threat. The visual threat shows how we perceive each other as a threat for our own psychological stability, based on a confrontation between “symbols of luck and happiness.” Symbols such as beauty, social position, and happiness in relationship and family. This threat is experienced in a very mental and intimate way, and is represented in the video by excerpts of audio interviews with two Francophone men and one Anglophone woman from Montreal about their way to experience visual confrontation. The physical threat, expressed through a meeting between two people in a desolate landscape, shows the human necessity to evaluate the unknown’s physical attributes in order to guarantee one’s own safety. Niccoli has decided to substitute the escalator with a hiking trail, a “path,” in order to underline the archaic and human aspect of self-protection.

(Source: http://www.christianniccoli.com/)