Carolin Koss
DREAM: Aurora Falls
I’ve been always fascinated by dreams, especially by their structure, because they have a strange logic and a strong visual side. I see dreams as a source of knowledge and inspiration as well as a hidden door to my subconscious. I am fascinated by the images and set ups my brain generates at night, so I like to translate them into my art and films.
One of these films is called Aurora Falls, which is about a 12-year old girl named Aurora, who finds herself trapped in an empty swimming pool. People from her subconscious visit her, who lead her on her path to overcome her fears. Yet she doesn’t know who to trust and who not, so she has to take her own initiative to find out why she keeps falling.
The film starts with a scene straight out of a dream I had as a child, and the project grew from there through dream logic. I also implemented the idea, that you often have to face your fears in your dreams so you get the chance to overcome them. That is why the last scene of Aurora Falls may look quite brutal, but in dream logic it could be the ultimate solution and salvation. Dreaming is like a trial, you get to try out dangerous and crazy stuff, which might potentially kill you in real life.
This sort of trial might give you new insight and knowledge, which you can then apply to real life. I appreciate the plot twists and unexpected nature of dreams, the way it challenges your perception and makes you question static views. Working with this kind of dream logic in my films gives me more freedom to think outside the box and mix up scenes and shots in a way you wouldn’t probably do in a traditional film way.
There are parallels in dreaming and creating. Logic can be questioned, objects can receive a different function, an initial mess can result into rewriting new rules and discovering new perspectives.
ABOUT CAROLIN KOSS
Carolin Koss is a Helsinki based artist and filmmaker originally from Germany. Koss works with various mediums and often creates contemplative and aesthetic works, which explore internal landscapes, dealing with sub-consciousness, instinctive behaviour or environmental issues.
Her works recurrently have a dreamlike nature and captivate through symbolic language and stylised imagery. She completed her MFA degree at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2014.
Her films and video works have been shown on various national and international exhibitions and film festivals e.g. in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and New York. Her recent exhibitions took place at In-Spire Gallerie in Dublin, at the Liminal States group show at the Gallery on the Corner in London, at the Landscape-Metropolis environmental art festival at G11 Gallery in Berlin and at the Future Memories group show at Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi in Venice.