水托邦 Hydrotopia
2026, 50:00
Film and Live Performance
水托邦 Hydrotopia
2026, 50:00
Film and Live Performance
In extreme cold, the human body can turn against itself through paradoxical undressing: failing nerves mistake freezing for heat, compelling the dying to shed their last protection. In 水托邦 (Hydrotopia), hydrophones frozen into a block of ice capture the material disintegration of their frozen body as a projected film gradually emerges into clarity. The film follows artist Jamie Man suspended by hooks pierced through flesh in a British winter landscape, practising rituals rooted in Shiva-dedicated traditions that explore a state of perpetual non-being. As the ice surrenders its form and the image sharpens into focus, transformation itself becomes the subject: matter abandoning one state for another, the body held suspended between dissolution and emergence. (Tim Leyendekker, WORM)
Performance view at WORM, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Photo credit: Matilde Gastaldo)
Flesh hook suspension: Jamie Man
Flesh hook Suspension design and facilitation: Tam Smith (@stateofblissuk)
Film: Chiemi Shimada
Sound performance and sound design: Jamie Man
Producer: Borre van Leeuwen (IFFR), Tim Leyendekker (WORM)
Produced by WORM with the International Film Festival Rotterdam
Special thanks to Morgan Quaintance, Jim Farrant, Marijn Cinjee
and the volunteers who helped build the vibroacoustic floor.
Performance History:
2026
Art Directions: sound//vision, International Film Festival Rotterdam, NL