SCREENING NOW

Shine bright (like a worm)

By Camille Belmin in collaboration with Janina Weißengruber (2024)

Stream Now

Mainstream Western culture is saturated with an aesthetic of gloss and shininess that inherently opposes decay or dirt. The iconization of sleek bodies serves as a tool to attract attention and sell mass-produced consumer goods, holding promises of success and happiness.
What if living processes such as composting were idolized instead, using a language appropriate to the mass media? What if popular culture could
find an obsession with the feces of worms?
This speculative advertising campaign promotes decay and compost as critical components of life on earth - a rather obscure process for urbanized societies that should be brought back to the center of our attention. What are the potentialities and limitations of the language of capital to promote social and ecological transformation? Can the tools of aesthetic enchantment and the visual logic of selling be used in a progressive way to foster greater harmony and equality between different life forms?