Correspondence #6: MOUNTAINS COME FIRST by Sofia Dona

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MOUNTAINS COME FIRST
Sofia Dona
video / 34’

“The Mediterranean is by definition a landlocked sea. But beyond this we must distinguish between the kinds of land that surround and confine it. It is, above all, a sea ringed by mountains. This outstanding fact and its many consequences have received too little attention in the past from historians. ”
Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II

Juxhin Kapaj (Jorgo Prifti) uses a spade to dig, shoveling sand, arduously forming the shape of the mountain range that he passed in 1990 as he migrated from Albania to Greece. The rhythm of the spade digging alongside the sound of the waves on the beach creates a soft background noise covered only by Juxhin’s voice as he narrates his story: from Avlona (Albania), to the Ceraunian Mountains, onto Corfu and Athens. As he digs, he creates a ditch that functions like a negative of the mountain topography which slowly subsumes him the deeper he goes. The mountain formed by the dug-up sand looms over him and slowly even surpasses the horizon line. Meanwhile a lone rower passes by balancing on a surf board. Towards the end of the narrative, an extract of the Greek song from the eponymous film “This Night will last” in which Kapaj’s voice was used as stand in for an Albanian immigrant intercepts the film. The narration becomes more fragmented as Kapaj tries to recall his journey through the mountains, mentioning cities, rivers and the geological topography of the landscape he passes. As he sculpts the mountain range, peaks, crevices and gorges, he effectively reconstructs the landscape and history of his passage. The title of the work is borrowed from the chapter ‘Mountains Come First’ from Braudel’s “Mediterranean” where Braudel points out that less research has been carried out on mountains due to their lack of an agricultural economy. However the mountains that circumscribe the Mediterranean are the embodiment of the passages through, over time.

Correspondences #6 tavros.space/projects/correspondences-6/
As part of the collective cinema project Unfortunately, it was paradise.
Comissioned by: Delphine Leccas (AIN) and Maria-Thalia Carras (Locus Athens)· Supported by: Rosa Luxembourg Foundation.

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