Urban Nature – 2006, Live cinema performance

Urban Nature is a live cinema performance. The work examines an imaginary dystopia of the modern city.
The footage was recorded in Tokyo and afterwards composed into a visual show accompanied by Michel Banabila’s
live music and trumpet’s by Eric Vloeimans. Re-contextualizing a new narrative structure, the images follow the dynamics
of the music to accomplish a symbiosis between the abstract storyline and the sound.

Urban Nature observes public behavior in a post urban environment. The individual is lost in a gentle flow of movement
and fades into the urban landscape. Surveillance is omnipresent. Pedestrians anonymously moving in the urban surroundings
embody the ‘stagnant routine of modern life’. The images fluctuate between clear and disrupted moments. Each sequence
appears to be a frozen moment in time.

Urban Nature was performed at Plaza Futura in Eindhoven and the State of the Image Festival in Arnhem. The video was
screened in Tate Britain in London, Sonar Festival in Spain, and exhibited at Yourspace in Van Abbe Museum Eindhoven.
Urban Nature was published online in CitySCENE by Vague Terrain in Canada.

Originally composed by Michel Banabila as “Crime Scene” and published by Steamin’ Songs © 2008.
Eric Vloeimans : trumpet www.ericvloeimans.com
Michel Banabila : electronics & percussion. www.banabila.com