Lano
Video installation, 7:17 min, 2012. Courtesy: James Cohan Gallery, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, and Galleri Nicolai Wallner
"Llano" is set in the ghost town of Llano del Rio, founded in 1913 by the socialist Job Harriman. The failure of irrigation and water supply finally caused the project, and the town, to be abandoned, nearly a century ago. We observe this desert and the vestiges of this utopian city in the sheeting rain. Soon, the camera shows us a set of pipes set up above the ruins. It is one of those contraptions typically used to create artificial rain on film sets. At the centre of all this, a woman struggles to prevent the collapse Like Sisyphus pushing his rock, she replaces the bricks and stones falling from the already disintegrated structure. Several times, throughout the film the camera takes us to a dark and gloomy engine room that seems indefinably connected to the ruin. According to Just, "Llano is a ruin of a place that is no longer, but also a place that really never happened. Here, we have a double meaning—a strange mix of utopia and dystopia, filled with failure as well as potent ideals."
Artist's Bio:
Jesper Just (1974) is a Danish artist working exclusively in film. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (1997-2003), currently lives and works in New York. He uses Hollywood conventions as a backdrop to create moody, atmospheric films with often ambiguous, unresolved storylines and characters stepping out of their expected roles. Jesper Just represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 2013.