Wisrah Villefort

Super Amuleto

This video is a montage of documentary and virtual images found on the Internet. They all have a performative dimension with varying registers of violence. The title – Super Amuleto – refers to the lucky charm of a rabbit’s foot. In Western symbolism it refers to fertility and therefore to prosperity and luck. It also alludes to one of the first relationships between man and animal in a conception of the animal as a ritual and divinatory object. It is a relationship that is based on violence however, like that of the animal thought of as food (also referenced by the fish at the start of the video) or the domesticated animal. 

The film’s text guides us towards the idea that a ritual presents a spiritual justification. This idea is reinforced by the translation of the text at the bottom of the image into an unknown language, reminiscent of emojis, which seems intended for another audience who remain invisible to us much like the magical language of Walter Benjamin. In certain sequences of the film, like those of the octopus on the face of a young woman or that of the drone with the eagle, there are relations of attraction / repulsion between man and animal, animal and machine which are ultimately also located within this register of violence.