In the Human Personality from 1943, the But the "ilm that best encapsulates Izquierdo’s As I write these lines, it is now . I have Roskva Koritzinsky French philosopher Simone Weil writes: interests is the carefully-made mockumentary recently seen rough footage of Crimes of the A Secret in the Box (2016) about the "ictive Future. In a few weeks it will be "inished, but by MY FIRST “When science, art, literature, and philosophy author Marcelo Chiriboga. A literary genius then this text will have been in print for some MASTERPIECE are simply the manifestations of personality and part of the Latin American literary boom time. Javier and I are, in other words, each sitting they are on a level where glorious and dazzling (alongside the better-known Julio Cortázar and in our own place on the planet tying to articulate achievements are possible [....] But above Gabriel García Márquez), he was later forgotten, the content and meanings that run through the Roskva Koritzinsky is a Norwegian writer and critic. She debuted in 2013 with the this level, far above, separated by an abyss, not to say surpressed. The author’s books are "ilm, what it might become and how it might be collection Her inne et sted (In here somewhere). is the level where the highest things are exploited, with more or less justi"ication, as tools read. This is a pertinent undertaking considering Her third book, Jeg har ennå ikke sett verden achieved [....] [The artist’s] personality has in the struggle for Ecuador’s future. His "igure that Izquierdo’s special interest is in the uncertain (I haven!t seen the world yet) was shortlisted vanished. Truth and beauty dwell on this diminishes in tandem with Ecuador – a country and un"inished quality of the work of art. for the Nordic Council!s Literature Prize in 2018. level of the impersonal and anonymous. which in this "ictional universe is made to su"fer Koritzinsky both writes about, and is one of the interview subjects in, Javier Izquierdo!s "ilm This is the realm of the sacred.” an even harsher fate than it did in reality – until Even the title, Crimes of the Future, is a small Crimes of the Future. the day when both the country and the author kôan in its own right. It is taken from one of the — are wiped o"f the map. The "ilm consists of clips protagonist’s articles-to-come, but neither the extracted from a TV interview, said to be the only "ilm nor the tell us what crimes it refers to. This summer I met the Ecuadorian "ilmmaker one the author ever gave, and conversations with Javier Izquierdo on a park bench in . Crimes of family, old friends, publishers and fans. It paints This is one of several gaps in . Others the Future was underway, which revisits Henning a humorous, albeit disturbing, picture of how the are the name Ylajali, or the sentence that the Carlsen’s "ilm adaptation of Hamsun’s Sult (Eng. heroes of yesterday can become the ghosts or protagonist repeats in an attempt to attract her Hunger) made in 1966. As a writer living in Oslo, scapegoats of tomorrow. In this way, it explores attention: “You have lost the book, Miss! You’ve invited to write about the "ilm, Izquierdo asked me the interactions between art and politics, strategy lost the book!” We are compelled to "ill in the to participate in it too, 129 years after Hamsun’s and coincidence, myth-making and history-writing, gaps, to enter unknown territory and attempt alter ego walked the streets starving. the little life and the grand narrative. to tie up loose ends, but we remain unsure as to what kind of intelligence to apply. Izquierdo’s "ilmography is characterized by a Izquierdo seems to be more curious about the fascination with the myth of the artist. Underpinned stories and imaginations that we – the readers, What does that scene mean? asks Izquierdo. by three lines of enquiry – geographical place, the spectators, members of society – create about I don’t know, I reply. Zeitgeist and the individual creator – his work a person when confronted with his/her artwork, necessarily poses questions about the interrelations than the artist's actual biography. And I still do not know. Perhaps there is no logical, between them. or for that matter medical or psychological, Reading between the lines, the artist's (and the explanation. That does not mean that the question In his documentary, Augusto San Miguel is dead artwork’s!) fragile, paper-thin quality is indicated; should not be asked. Perhaps it reveals a great (2003), Izquierdo set out to uncover traces of she/he becomes a projection and so no one. Even deal about itself, a kind of "lickering lamp, blinking Ecuador’s "irst "ilmmaker, an artist who later the existence of her/his oeuvre is undermined. alone in obscurity. sank into oblivion and along with him a large part Subject to a process of continuous negotiation, of the story of Ecuador as a "ilmmaking nation. their status is destabilized. Changing notions — about the kind of tasks that constitute the artist’s Barajas (2017) is a video collage of found footage metier mean that what is declared an eternal As we know, Knut Hamsun was preoccupied with of the four great Latin American writers who died truth at one moment is pushed out into the cold what he called “the unconscious life of the soul”; a in a plane crash in 1983 on their way to a writers’ the next. Names that seemed carved in stone state of mind that only sensitive, responsive and conference in Bogotá. The title of the "ilm is the vanish from one day to another – not only the troubled people experience, and which most people airport in Madrid, located close to the spot where name but the stone too. would call madness. He himself called this “far the crash took place. from abnormal [...], neither dream nor reality; it is — a moment imbued with an unconscious sensation of a""inity with nature.”

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE 68 69 JAVIER IZQUIERDO In the essay Human Personality from 1943, the But the "ilm that best encapsulates Izquierdo’s As I write these lines, it is now August. I have Roskva Koritzinsky French philosopher Simone Weil writes: interests is the carefully-made mockumentary recently seen rough footage of Crimes of the A Secret in the Box (2016) about the "ictive Future. In a few weeks it will be "inished, but by MY FIRST “When science, art, literature, and philosophy author Marcelo Chiriboga. A literary genius then this text will have been in print for some MASTERPIECE are simply the manifestations of personality and part of the Latin American literary boom time. Javier and I are, in other words, each sitting they are on a level where glorious and dazzling (alongside the better-known Julio Cortázar and in our own place on the planet tying to articulate achievements are possible [....] But above Gabriel García Márquez), he was later forgotten, the content and meanings that run through the Roskva Koritzinsky is a Norwegian writer and critic. She debuted in 2013 with the short story this level, far above, separated by an abyss, not to say surpressed. The author’s books are "ilm, what it might become and how it might be collection Her inne et sted (In here somewhere). is the level where the highest things are exploited, with more or less justi"ication, as tools read. This is a pertinent undertaking considering Her third book, Jeg har ennå ikke sett verden achieved [....] [The artist’s] personality has in the struggle for Ecuador’s future. His "igure that Izquierdo’s special interest is in the uncertain (I haven!t seen the world yet) was shortlisted vanished. Truth and beauty dwell on this diminishes in tandem with Ecuador – a country and un"inished quality of the work of art. for the Nordic Council!s Literature Prize in 2018. level of the impersonal and anonymous. which in this "ictional universe is made to su"fer Koritzinsky both writes about, and is one of the interview subjects in, Javier Izquierdo!s "ilm This is the realm of the sacred.” an even harsher fate than it did in reality – until Even the title, Crimes of the Future, is a small Crimes of the Future. the day when both the country and the author kôan in its own right. It is taken from one of the — are wiped o"f the map. The "ilm consists of clips protagonist’s articles-to-come, but neither the extracted from a TV interview, said to be the only "ilm nor the novel tell us what crimes it refers to. This summer I met the Ecuadorian "ilmmaker one the author ever gave, and conversations with Javier Izquierdo on a park bench in Oslo. Crimes of family, old friends, publishers and fans. It paints This is one of several gaps in Hunger. Others the Future was underway, which revisits Henning a humorous, albeit disturbing, picture of how the are the name Ylajali, or the sentence that the Carlsen’s "ilm adaptation of Hamsun’s Sult (Eng. heroes of yesterday can become the ghosts or protagonist repeats in an attempt to attract her Hunger) made in 1966. As a writer living in Oslo, scapegoats of tomorrow. In this way, it explores attention: “You have lost the book, Miss! You’ve invited to write about the "ilm, Izquierdo asked me the interactions between art and politics, strategy lost the book!” We are compelled to "ill in the to participate in it too, 129 years after Hamsun’s and coincidence, myth-making and history-writing, gaps, to enter unknown territory and attempt alter ego walked the streets starving. the little life and the grand narrative. to tie up loose ends, but we remain unsure as to what kind of intelligence to apply. Izquierdo’s "ilmography is characterized by a Izquierdo seems to be more curious about the fascination with the myth of the artist. Underpinned stories and imaginations that we – the readers, What does that scene mean? asks Izquierdo. by three lines of enquiry – geographical place, the spectators, members of society – create about I don’t know, I reply. Zeitgeist and the individual creator – his work a person when confronted with his/her artwork, necessarily poses questions about the interrelations than the artist's actual biography. And I still do not know. Perhaps there is no logical, between them. or for that matter medical or psychological, Reading between the lines, the artist's (and the explanation. That does not mean that the question In his documentary, Augusto San Miguel is dead artwork’s!) fragile, paper-thin quality is indicated; should not be asked. Perhaps it reveals a great (2003), Izquierdo set out to uncover traces of she/he becomes a projection and so no one. Even deal about itself, a kind of "lickering lamp, blinking Ecuador’s "irst "ilmmaker, an artist who later the existence of her/his oeuvre is undermined. alone in obscurity. sank into oblivion and along with him a large part Subject to a process of continuous negotiation, of the story of Ecuador as a "ilmmaking nation. their status is destabilized. Changing notions — about the kind of tasks that constitute the artist’s Barajas (2017) is a video collage of found footage metier mean that what is declared an eternal As we know, Knut Hamsun was preoccupied with of the four great Latin American writers who died truth at one moment is pushed out into the cold what he called “the unconscious life of the soul”; a in a plane crash in 1983 on their way to a writers’ the next. Names that seemed carved in stone state of mind that only sensitive, responsive and conference in Bogotá. The title of the "ilm is the vanish from one day to another – not only the troubled people experience, and which most people airport in Madrid, located close to the spot where name but the stone too. would call madness. He himself called this “far the crash took place. from abnormal [...], neither dream nor reality; it is — a moment imbued with an unconscious sensation of a""inity with nature.”

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE 68 69 JAVIER IZQUIERDO A moment of revelation, we might say. Or oneness This is not to say that self-absorption and its Writing is one of several activities that can open of being. At all events, it reeks of the spirit and cousins should be passed over. In Crimes of the the doors on the experience of transcendence. At the eternal. Future, the psychologist Finn Skårderud describes the same time, the writer is often vain, preoccupied Hamsun’s alter ego as an image of the modern with self-presentation and feedback, or her/his The "ilm director Anja Breien, a member of the human condition: the neuroticism, the self-discipline, knowledge of the world, with others and her/ Hunger crew in 1966, and who also appears in the quest for meaning and self-realization, the himself. And so the fate of the writer is, as a Izquierdo’s "ilm, describes how seeing the "ilm longing for love, the grandiose self-image. rule, to remain trapped in the ego – whether again brought new insights. “I was surprised to covertly or not. see how played the main character This makes me think of Simone Weil again. Ironically, as being on the threshold of madness,” she says. the French thinker – she was schooled and well Either he mumbles to himself at night, or writes Here she touches on something interesting: what read in so many "ields that it would be silly to reel on a wall. happens to a novel consisting of one long internal them o"f here – died of hunger at the age of 34. monologue when it is portrayed on "ilm? What At least so the myth says. — do the director’s "ilmic choices tell us about the interpretation of the material, and what does An important theme in Weil’s work was how human Writers, psychologists, historians, critics, reader this reveal about the mood and concerns of an beings ful"ill their mission on earth (and become – no-one owns Hunger. The dialogues in Crimes era – its view of humanity, art and the world? one with God) by adopting a kind of total silence of the Future delineate the protagonist, but he or concentration, a condition that one does not constantly de"ies all attempts at de"inition. He is There is one scene in particular that I have to seek but receives. In this state it is possible to both mad and brilliant, an artist and a mediocre single out. The protagonist’s article has been make contact with the so-called ‘impersonal.’ The impostor, a victim and a self-harmer, a man of accepted. He is ecstatic, and enthusiastically impersonal, as I understand the concept, is closely integrity and a liar, a representative of the zeitgeist scribbles a message to posterity: related to what Buddhism calls the Buddha-nature and a human being. or non-self: a state in which the ego – with all its “Here I wrote my "irst masterpiece.” longings, aversions, preferences, uncertainties, And Hunger? It is about physical hunger, existential ruthlessness and pleasures – ceases to be, whereby hunger, the longing for con"irmation, the longing This scene is not in the novel. True, the protagonist the subject comes into contact with ... well, with for God. It is about poverty, megalomania. It is a has heard a comment by the editor of the newspaper what exactly? With the force that created the portrait of a time and a portrait of a city, a novel publishing the article - “written with talent.” He universe, the lifespring, the falling away of all about an artist and about an epicrisis. is “foolish with joy.” He raves through the streets illusion. Or in Hamsun’s words: an “unconscious at night repeating: “Written with talent, in other sensation of a""inity with nature.” And perhaps too, it is about the pain of experiencing words, a little masterpiece, a stroke of genius!” a moment of a""inity with all that lives, only to Crimes of the Future: A !ilm about a !ilm about a book One of Weil’s arguments is that we cannot know meet one’s own re"lection in a window pane a about a city. Film stills There is a clear di"ference between repeating what is good or true without "irst having experienced second later. something to oneself and committing it to paper. this state. In other words, we cannot discover what The di"ference is small but signi"icant. By choosing is good or true by thinking (or shaming ourselves to write down the phrase - words uttered alone, at into knowing); we will always be coloured by the night - “foolish joy” becomes a written message. ego, rather than God or nature. In other words, With this act, the protagonist of Hunger makes an we cannot escape from ourselves, our bodies, our almost imperceptible move away from collectivity, humanity. It is a state that we may experience falling further out of step with the norm. Further but cannot consciously seek. away from the usual: self-absorbed, would-be author, Instagrammer or supermarket cashier. A little less like ‘one of us.’

—

The section on Simone Weil is based on the foreword by Sian Miles pp. 1-67 and the text Human Personality pp. 69-80, from Simone Weil – An anthology, Penguin Classics 2009.

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE 70 71 JAVIER IZQUIERDO A moment of revelation, we might say. Or oneness This is not to say that self-absorption and its Writing is one of several activities that can open of being. At all events, it reeks of the spirit and cousins should be passed over. In Crimes of the the doors on the experience of transcendence. At the eternal. Future, the psychologist Finn Skårderud describes the same time, the writer is often vain, preoccupied Hamsun’s alter ego as an image of the modern with self-presentation and feedback, or her/his The !ilm director Anja Breien, a member of the human condition: the neuroticism, the self-discipline, knowledge of the world, with others and her/ Hunger crew in 1966, and who also appears in the quest for meaning and self-realization, the himself. And so the fate of the writer is, as a Izquierdo’s !ilm, describes how seeing the !ilm longing for love, the grandiose self-image. rule, to remain trapped in the ego – whether again brought new insights. “I was surprised to covertly or not. see how Per Oscarsson played the main character This makes me think of Simone Weil again. Ironically, as being on the threshold of madness,” she says. the French thinker – she was schooled and well Either he mumbles to himself at night, or writes Here she touches on something interesting: what read in so many !ields that it would be silly to reel on a wall. happens to a novel consisting of one long internal them o!f here – died of hunger at the age of 34. monologue when it is portrayed on !ilm? What At least so the myth says. — do the director’s !ilmic choices tell us about the interpretation of the material, and what does An important theme in Weil’s work was how human Writers, psychologists, historians, critics, reader this reveal about the mood and concerns of an beings ful!ill their mission on earth (and become – no-one owns Hunger. The dialogues in Crimes era – its view of humanity, art and the world? one with God) by adopting a kind of total silence of the Future delineate the protagonist, but he or concentration, a condition that one does not constantly de!ies all attempts at de!inition. He is There is one scene in particular that I have to seek but receives. In this state it is possible to both mad and brilliant, an artist and a mediocre single out. The protagonist’s article has been make contact with the so-called ‘impersonal.’ The impostor, a victim and a self-harmer, a man of accepted. He is ecstatic, and enthusiastically impersonal, as I understand the concept, is closely integrity and a liar, a representative of the zeitgeist scribbles a message to posterity: related to what Buddhism calls the Buddha-nature and a human being. or non-self: a state in which the ego – with all its “Here I wrote my !irst masterpiece.” longings, aversions, preferences, uncertainties, And Hunger? It is about physical hunger, existential ruthlessness and pleasures – ceases to be, whereby hunger, the longing for con!irmation, the longing This scene is not in the novel. True, the protagonist the subject comes into contact with ... well, with for God. It is about poverty, megalomania. It is a has heard a comment by the editor of the newspaper what exactly? With the force that created the portrait of a time and a portrait of a city, a novel publishing the article - “written with talent.” He universe, the lifespring, the falling away of all about an artist and about an epicrisis. is “foolish with joy.” He raves through the streets illusion. Or in Hamsun’s words: an “unconscious at night repeating: “Written with talent, in other sensation of a!!inity with nature.” And perhaps too, it is about the pain of experiencing words, a little masterpiece, a stroke of genius!” a moment of a!!inity with all that lives, only to Crimes of the Future: A !ilm about a !ilm about a book One of Weil’s arguments is that we cannot know meet one’s own re!lection in a window pane a about a city. Film stills There is a clear di!ference between repeating what is good or true without !irst having experienced second later. something to oneself and committing it to paper. this state. In other words, we cannot discover what The di!ference is small but signi!icant. By choosing is good or true by thinking (or shaming ourselves to write down the phrase - words uttered alone, at into knowing); we will always be coloured by the night - “foolish joy” becomes a written message. ego, rather than God or nature. In other words, With this act, the protagonist of Hunger makes an we cannot escape from ourselves, our bodies, our almost imperceptible move away from collectivity, humanity. It is a state that we may experience falling further out of step with the norm. Further but cannot consciously seek. away from the usual: self-absorbed, would-be author, Instagrammer or supermarket cashier. A little less like ‘one of us.’

—

The section on Simone Weil is based on the foreword by Sian Miles pp. 1-67 and the text Human Personality pp. 69-80, from Simone Weil – An anthology, Penguin Classics 2009.

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE 70 71 JAVIER IZQUIERDO