William Andreas Wivel

At a former asphalt factory construction site in a Copenhagen suburb, a group of artists and citizens aer participating in a project to reconnect with the remnants of nature that we often overlook in the city. The boundaries between artist, gardener and biologist are osmotic in a project where five different artists, each with their own practice, share the role of ‘Garden Caretaker’ – a figure that invites participants to experience and rediscover the richness of the surrounding flora and fauna in the middle of a changing urban space.

To the sounds of a shifting collage of pop music, three dancing queer bodies move around sparsely lit spaces where fragile walls are falling apart. The transience of the walls, the vanity of the dancers, the chiaroscuro-lit images, and the title of the film take us back to the 17th century and Baroque painting, where the concept of vanitas was used for still lifes that referred to the vanity of life through elements such as fruits and flowers. ‘Vanitas’ is a musical dance work in a decaying, dreamlike world full of fragility and uncertain intimacy, in a constant alternation between being alone and being part of something.

Eyad fled to Denmark from Syria. He now spends a lot of time alone in his room, feeling lost. His mother takes care of him but is concerned about what will happen when she is gone. Danish director William Andreas Wivel brings in his personal experience of losing his mother and creates a touching farewell, which examines the emotional complexity of saying goodbye to a loved one while losing yourself in the process.