Inextinguishable fire
The title of the piece references Harun Farocki’s 1969 film of the same name, which approaches the impossible task of effectively depicting the horror of napalm on film. Cassils’s gesture of self-immolation speaks to both the desire for–and the impossibility of–knowing such horror, even while decisively aiming to approach it. Though the stunt is a simulation of violence, it still presents real danger. This possibly volatile situation–and the attempt to control it–is captured to create an image where danger, empathy for those experiencing violence, and the privilege of removal from such circumstance operate simultaneously in one transparent performance.

Delusions of self-immolation

The installation Delusions of self-immolation will lead a great number of visitors to ask themselves where the boundaries of their own body lie and why one would wish to discover them. Erik Hobijn has built a machine in which one may almost look death in the face, and that, equipped with fire and water spraying devices, sets light to the victim and extinguishes the flames, standing in the middle of a platform. During the course of the festival Erik Hobijn will give demonstrations.The borders of the body are hard to define in terms of averages, because they are closely related to the psyche that demonstrates the physical limits. Despite its extremely physical nature, the way in which it is experienced is determined by personal fears, dreams and desires. Erik Hobijn’s machine unleashes such strong emotional responses because it forces the person to be the guardian and researcher of their own body limits. It is a life of initialization toward self development, with its own warmth and beauty..