Magic & Loss

Produced in Amsterdam 2005, this work employs narrative reduction and documentary precision to show a group of people packing and removing the contents of a seemingly pleasant apartment. The methodical movements of people packing boxes, carrying the apartment's contents to the street, and hoisting the furniture to the ground with ropes, and pulleys, silently creates a choreographed mysterious narrative. The owner of the flat is not present, and the unemotional detachment of the movers emphasizes the question of what has happened to the person or persons who once lived there. What, in the simplest practical terms, happens when an individual disappears and his private living space is disbanded? The title here adds a dimension to the concrete themes of the film, Lou Reed’s album of the same title, a reaction to the loss of several friends, casts its shadow over this general social investigation into the individual and his positioning in a society in process of becoming increasingly anonymous.