Surakami: An Invitation to Disappear

An Invitation to Disappear - Surakami, 2018

Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, mounted on aluminium dibond

Edition of 10 + 3 AP

Framed (Walnut) 

Shot in Southeast Asia, Julian Charrière’s film An Invitation to Disappear records a psycho-social transcendent rave set in the fields of a monoculture palm oil plantation. A linear camera shot through nauseatingly infinite rows of trees is underpinned by the mesmerizing pulse of natural sounds and techno beats, developed together with the British DJ and producer Inland. The film also marks the first outcome of the artist’s collaboration with philosopher Dehlia Hannah, responding to the 200th anniversary of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia that plunged world into darkness and weather extremes—a climate cooling crisis remembered in Europe as the “year without a summer.” The delirium of the rave feels increasingly alienating within the human-made grid of the plantation, culminating in feelings of unease competing with the temptation of intrigue. Fog, flashing strobes, and overwhelming sounds turn the palm grove into a melancholic party zone in which the lack of people only exacerbates the dystopian vibe.