As
the film’s only textual captions will tell you at the beginning, the
Convento itself was built in the 1600s to house Christian relics from
The Crucifiction. It was a monastery until the 1830s, and remained
abandoned for some 120 years after. It’s a rich history, and Convento
shows how that history is continuing today. But rather than Christian
monks it’s the Zwanikken family who now walk the corridors and tend
the elaborate gardens. They also practice their own form of monkish
dedication to their beliefs. Alterman says that the minute he stepped
into the Convento and met the Zwanikkens, he knew he’d have to come
back. And bring a camera.
Geraldine
Zwanikken and her husband decided to move from the Amsterdam art
scene decades ago and they bought the overgrown land and decrepit
buildings that make up the Convento. They left the Netherlands not to
escape anything -- in fact Geraldine was at the height of a ballet
career -- but because they felt change was a good thing. It is great
to do art for a crowds, but perhaps doing your own art for yourself
could be something sublime. The Zwanikkens brought with them their two
young sons, Louis and Christiaan, barely older than toddlers at the
time.
Together
they made the Convento into the world that it is today. They repaired
the buildings, brought in electricity, began growing their food --
but more than that they created a world solely for themselves. Like
the monks before them who distanced themselves from the rest of the
world in order to perfect their reverence for God, the Zwanikkens
began perfecting their reverence for life.
Today,
some 30 years later, the boys are grown and their father has died
(though Geraldine will tell you that death does not exist). She tends
the grounds, trundling through the pond to pull the weed-like plants
that prevent the turtles from surfacing. Always laughing and casual, she
refers to it as the pond’s “haircut.” Louis focuses on the animals,
putting so much time and effort into their care that director Alterman
has said he could barely keep up. Louis has grown to think of the
animals as friends.
They
each clearly have reached that sublime status of pure life, living
how they want to live. The things they must do are also the things
they want to do. But it is the activities of Christiaan that perhaps
best exemplifies this notion, and in a tangible way.
Christiaan
is a kinetic artist. He blends mechanics and the remains of animals
found on the property into otherworldly creatures that move and
occasionally speak in awe-inspiring ways. It is his artwork that
provides the strange helmeted-rabbit creation used to promote Convento,
an image likely disturbing to some but one that is simply assembled
from the components of our daily lives. Alterman shows these creations
in action, he in fact collaborated with Christiaan to really bring
them to life for the camera. The jaw bones that clatter effortlessly,
the bird skulls that look left and right as if watching for prey --
they are all truly amazing.
Perhaps
the most surprising piece of all is the ancient water well that pulls
up water for the entire garden and for centuries was turned by
donkey. In today’s Convento, it’s turned by a mechanical animal with
tire treads for feet and ears that flit about as if swishing real
flies away. It is artwork blended with practicality as much as it is
modern mechanics blended with bits of nature’s own machines.
Convento
shows a world dedicated to that blend. The practicality of art, the
art of living. It shows this with amazing images, alternating the
strange with the familiar. It balances images of death with a casual
air and occasional humor. The world that Alterman captures in Convento is a world well worth paying a visit to.
Editor: Rod Webber
Published by Reel Zine
© Reel Zine 2011
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