In this edition of Commented Collection, Professor Esther Hamburger reflects on Parabolic People (1991), a video work by Sandra Kogut.
With video booths installed on the streets of Moscow, Tokyo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Dakar in 1990, Sandra Kogut captured messages from people around the world. “Parabolic People” is composed of a myriad of these testimonials. Presented in a fragmentary manner, they juxtapose, intersect, and overlap. Investigating a tension between anonymity and identity in a globalizing reality, the video reflects on the relationship between the individual and the camera.
Parabolic People won an award at the 9th Videobrasil Festival. Today, the work is part of the Videobrasil's collection and can be viewed in its entirety in the video library by appointment via arquivo@videobrasil.org.br.
Esther Hamburger is a Full Professor of Film and Audiovisual History in the Department of Film, Radio, and Television and in the Graduate Program in Audiovisual Media and Processes at the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo (ECA/USP). She is currently deputy director of the Museum of Contemporary Art at the same university and a member of the coordination team of the UNESCO Unitwin Network in Media Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago, and her work lies at the intersection of Anthropology and Film and Audiovisual Studies. She is currently co-editor of Significação: Revista de Cultura Audiovisual.
*The Commented Collection invites curators and researchers to reflect on the works in the Videobrasil Collection. With original critical analyses, the project expands the information available on the works in light of contemporary issues and offers new angles for research, activating the collection of Associação Cultural Videobrasil and expanding knowledge about artists from the Global South.