Fire

2007
Video
Loop



Fire implicitly refers to Elias Canetti’s analysis of the fire as the symbol of the crowd’s inner logic and desire. “Fire is multiple. Not only does one know that there must be fires in many, indeed in innumerable places, but the individual fire itself is multiple: we speak of flames and of tongues of flame. In the Vedas fire is called ’The one Agni, manifoldly ablaze’.” Crowds and Power, Elias Canetti.

The fire featured in the video is the fire of Valborg (Walpurgis), which is celebrated by lighting huge bonfires and singing. These bonfires gather large crowds throughout Sweden.