THUS, THE NIGHT
A collaborative art film by the three-time GRAMMY®-nominated musicians of Spektral Quartet, visual artist Antonia Contro, and production company Four/Ten Media, THUS, THE NIGHT interweaves sonic and visual impressions of nighttime through a surrealistic lens, illuminating the sensuousness and complexity of our human relationship to darkness.
Inspired by composer Henri Dutilleux’s 1976 work for string quartet “Ainsi la Nuit”, the film unfolds metamorphically, its motivic tendrils turning mysterious corners and traversing environments of sound and image according to its own inner evolutionary logic. In Thus, The Night, the interplay and juxtaposition of art objects, musical performance, and physical environments trace unexpected associations and elusive patterns, creating a feeling of heightened sensory perception. At various points along the way, a viewer may find themselves asking: where are we, and how did we emerge here? Like a dream or a memory, nighttime distorts our experience and asks us to question what is real, and what is not as it appears. Magical, strange, and intricate, Thus, The Night is an invitation to enjoy the power of suggestion.
Filming for Thus, the Night took place on the edge of the prairie at Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, the 55th floor of a Chicago skyscraper, and a private residence on Lake Michigan in June of 2022.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Spektral Quartet
Antonia Contro
Four/Ten Media
