Witness Block

During an electromagnetic storm caused by a solar collapse, the sky changes, the city energy switches on and off, telematic communication is interrupted, and wifi waves disappear. During this blackout, a massive sphere appears inside a hole in the ground of an ancient building,

In archaeology, a Witness Block is the designation of a significant part of an archaeological site for future assessments, preservation, and more in-depth research when technology allows. In the film, the witness block is a phantom of the future that travels through time.

Credits

2024, 16mm, 4K, transferred to HD, 8’

Director/artist

Leticia Ramos

Cinematography

Diego Garc and Leticia Ramos

Cinematographer Assistant

Juliane Arguello

Scale model team

Natalia Vaz, Lali Izuno, Marina Rosa

Maquinist

Adriana Lima

Set Production

Maxwell Matias

Color Grade and Post Production

Felipe Manoel

Special FX

Leticia Ramos and Thailiny Cruz

Special thanks

Mendes Wood DM, Elétrica Cinema e Vídeo

Founded by

Pivô, Mendes Wood DM, Porto Art School, Studio Leticia Ramos

Leticia Ramos

Letícia Ramos (b. 1976, Santo Antônio da Patrulha, Brazil), lives and works in São Paulo.

Leticia Ramos explores the limits of the production and exegesis of analogue images through photographic and film works, which she also develops into installations, objects, publications, and performances. Her practice is directed towards the aesthetic intersections of the documentary and the fictional, occurring at the interfaces between natural and imaginary landscapes and between the discourses of historical records and those of invented characters, whilst simultaneously exploring the relationship between visual memory and the nature of the abstract and spectral.

Using rigorous technical and formal procedures as a point of departure, the artist emulates aspects of scientific expeditions that guide us along ambiguous and atemporal objects and themes. In this sense, she builds inventive photographic apparatuses – such as cameras, models, and staged sets – in order to reflect on the use of these devices as elements of speculation, representation, and the production of geographic and poetic terrains.

Some of the artist’s solo exhibitions include: Noise, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2022); Resilience and Reverberation, Mendes Wood DM, New York (2019); História Universal dos Terremotos, Pivô, São Paulo (2018); HISTÓRIA UNIVERSAL DOS TERREMOTOS, Fundación Botín, Santander (2017); Planisphere, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo (2017).