Anita Beckers Gallery is pleased to participate in the inaugural edition of Loop Lab Busan, an extension of Loop Barcelona and the commitment to promoting artists’ video and digital media arts on an international stage.

This new project builds on Loop’s long-standing mission to create meaningful opportunities for galleries, artists, and collectors to engage with the moving image while embracing Busan’s rich cultural scene. Loop Lab Busan, is an artists‘ video and media art fair in South Korea, a new initiative by Loop Barcelona and A-Fluxion, in collaboration with the Busan Museum of Art, and the Busan Metropolitan City.

The gallery will present »The Heart of a Tree«by acclaimed Irish filmmaker and visual artist Clare Langan.

The »The Heart of a Tree« contemplates the centrality of these giants of nature to the planet’s survival, and ours. Trees provide us with the very air we breathe. It is a glimpse into a future world where human beings have evolved and adapted in order to survive. This film is a timely metaphor of a world turned upside down by our disregard for nature and the planet. The film is shot in a barren treeless landscape, which could either be a future vision of earth or another planet. The inhabitants negotiate their way thought this inhospitable environment, harvesting air, the new gold. They plant trees on a deserted black beach, hoping to repopulate the planet with its source of oxygen.

The »The Heart of a Tree« explores the disconnection between humankind and nature and ultimately within ourselves. It is about redressing this imbalance, which has reached a tipping point. Global ecology is a delicate balancing act. It has become necessary for humans to evolve within their environment in order to survive. The work’s narrative contains this tension between harmony and strife.

The »The Heart of a Tree« was shot by Clare Langan and Oscar nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan with music by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson. The work is held in the collection of Fondazione In Between Art Film, Rome, and The Crawford Gallery of Art, Cork.

As part of Loop Lab Busan, »The Heart of a Tree« will be featured as an example for innovative video art exploring ecological and existential themes. The fair provides an international platform for dialogue on contemporary moving image practices, and Anita Beckers Gallery is honored to contribute to this conversation with Langan’s poignant and visually stunning work.