KIRANPANI HOUSE

2010-2017, duration 8'30"

Production | Photography | Editing


Music

Second Self-Portrait Series
Egon & Wally Embrace And Say Farewell
Mime Van Osen

Performed by     

Christian Frederickson (viola), Wendy Doyle (cello), Rachel Grimes (piano)

Written by           

Rachel Grimes (Mossgrove Music - BMI)
From the album “Music for Egon Schiele” by Rachel's
Courtesy of Touch & Go / Quarterstick Records

www.rachelsband.com

Architecture

METTE LANGE

www.mettelange.com

http://www.mettelange.com/Kiranpani-House-India

SYNOPSYS  

A short film on the experience of architecture, revealed through a child's eyes while performing actions and sounds, being permeable to the sensorial qualities of this environment.
The film casts two characters. A Portuguese house, interpreted in a modern way by Mette Lange, a Danish architect - and Anil, a two year old explorer.

KIRANPANI House is located in the northern part of Goa, on a hillside in the jungle overlooking the Tirakol River with distant views of Maharastra. The house is designed for a European family who spends the winters in India. Only a few things from the original structure remain, while the facade wall facing the tropical jungle has been removed, creating a breathtaking open space.

Kiranpani in Hindi means "spring of water," because the house is built near a fresh-water source. In this setting, a two- and-a- half- year old kid moves, explores, conquers, creates stories. Climbs a steep staircase, strokes cutting edges, widening the perception of a space that is complex in sensorial richness and dynamic poetry.

The description of the architecture is filtered through his observation, not yet conditioned by rational categories related to space.  Anil is in a stage of his life when the synapses respond very well to experiences that appear interesting, promising, pleasing, gratifying. Impermanent shadows of leaves on the patio floor resonate in his system as deep as the volume of a concrete staircase.

There is an experiential intelligence that can emerge when a kid is given the opportunity to relate with surroundings in quiet freedom.

Giving him time. A joyful poetry that flows when trust is given space.

NOTE  BY  THE  DIRECTOR

In 2010, I filmed this intimate diary while shooting photographs at Mette Lange's Kiranpani House in Goa. My son, at that time only two and half years old, highlighted his presence around my legs with new actions triggered by this unedited space. Only this year I edited the material into a film because I could see it having a kind of universal value, talking about architecture in a fresh emotional way.

The storytelling is not linear, in order to communicate the poetical view that Anil experienced in this environment where he lived intensively for a few days during his third winter in India. The day is woven in with dreaming and sleeping, as well as the circularity of the mantra singing that Anil heard in India.

My only intentional film direction consisted in gradually moving within his range objects that were familiar for playing and iconic as representing India, following a rhythm that could give him options to complete the creation of the space. In this time, Anil was training himself to conquer actions and celebrating life in a context not commonly associated with safety for kids, showing how smart a kid can be when left free.

RACHEL'S Music, from MUSIC FOR EGON SCHIELE Album, is essential to the narration without words, enriched by the jungle's sounds and Anil's voice. I am deeply grateful.