Loop City Screen x DOM: Marina Zvidrina

Soultrap is a confession of a woman suffering from depression. But first and foremost, it is a confession of a woman. It shows 18 silent portraits, and their bodies, the light, the gestures, and the texture of the space itself is their voice.

Marina characterizes her work as a “poetical horror-manifesto”. Here, horror is not a genre, but a visual definition of depression, the very dark space where the fears, the vulnerability, and terror obtain perceptible form. The movie doesn’t have a traditional plot: every portrait becomes a separate outline, and together they form a tapestry. Its cold hues transmit isolation and void, deep shadows incorporate internal darkness, and white and milk shades hint at the flickers of liberation.

In Soultrap, depression appears as a protagonist, a conductor orchestrating an ensemble of 18 women who succumbed to its force. It is a puppeteer, mercilessly making them move, break, and reassemble themselves again. Through this image, Marina answers the question: what does it mean to be trapped in the pitfall or one’s darkness?

On a screening day of City Screen Loop, “I am here” has an assertive sound. It is not a plea for salvation, but a declaration of the presence, of being “here and now”. And many women will resonate with this: “I am here. I am also here.”
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Project I’m here, created by DOM Art Residence for the City Screen Loop festival, is a three-day show by three artists. They are united by the same phrase voiced with different intonation.

I’m here.

Am I here?

I’m here!

An assertion, a question, and an exclamation - three possible interpretations of the same statement, three ways to declare one’s presence.

This formula seems simple, but it holds a lot inside: the desire to be seen and understood, the necessity to assert oneself, the search for one’s place, and the striving to stay “here and now”. I’m here is both acceptance of the fragility and the power of a statement. The presence might be quiet, but it is strong. It may sound like a doubt or a challenge. But the right to it is undeniable.

DOM Art Residence invited three artists into this conversation: Evgeny Granilshchikov, Katrin Bittl, and Marina Zvidriņa. Their work sounds in different registers, but together it creates a polyphony of identity and presence. Each one has his and her own intonation: an assertion, a question, an exclamation. Together, they transform a simple phrase I’m here into a universal statement about human presence that cannot be ignored.

I’m here is a project about what it means to be here and now: to search for one’s place, to doubt, and to assert, to try different forms. Together, these voices create a multilayered statement where the persona becomes the universal, and the presence becomes a way to oppose oblivion.

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Screening schedule:
The film will be screened continuously from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM.
You are welcome to join at any time.

At 6:30 PM, there will be a public talk with the director.