3’42”

2018

In 1959, Jean Seberg stares into Raoul Coutard’s camera lens and then turns – the closing frame of Godard’s Breathless is the back of her head. For the film it is a closing; for her character it is less clear. Is it a refusal? A shying away from? An admission of guilt? A disappearing act? In 2017, twenty-three women – friends and passersby – reverse Seberg’s action on the streets of Berlin. **Turn was commissioned by the Arsenal and Film Feld Forschung. A copy will be placed in a heated terrarium, tracking the film’s demise. Turn, printed on volatile acetate, will eventually fall victim to vinegar syndrome. Acetic acid will be released, the base will shrink and buckle, the image will decompose. Through off-gassing, this seemingly unchanging spool of dark plastic will be in constant change, and will also have the ability to infect others of its kind.