I Am a Rock
2024; HD-video, 16:9: stereophonic audio; 03:50
By Teta TsybulnykMusic: Maksym Razdobudko (based on “I Am a Rock” by Simon & Garfunkel)
Shot in Kärdla, Hiiumaa island, Estonia in November 2023with care and companionship of KORDONair, Ingel Vaikla, Tüüne-Kristin Vaikla, Urmo Vaikla, Ann Mirjam Vaikla, Rasmus Jensen, Jaan Tootsen, Elias
“We must admit between the figure and the text a whole series of intersections—or rather attacks launched by one against the other, arrows shot at the enemy target, enterprises of subversion and destruction, lance blows and wounds, a battle.” —Michel Foucault, “This Is Not a Pipe”
In the speechless wilderness, a rock is a rock is a rock. In the human realm of language, a rock can be many things — say, a meteorite. We drag it into the symbolic order to represent something different from itself. A rock then acquires a discourse — it can speak, signify, oscillate between meanings. There is a model of the Kärdla crater with a rock in the middle — or perhaps two rocks: one identical to itself, the other one elevated to the status of a meteorite. In a playful homage to Magritte and Simon & Garfunkel, the film explores the paradoxical relationship between nature, representation and language.
Public screenings:16–18.10.2026 at Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin, Berlin, Germany22.09.2026 as part of language at play, language at fault programme, Kyiv International Short Film Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine13–20.09.2026 at Filma. Feminist Film Festival (online)12.09.2026 as part of Lull: An Environmental Film Program, Ukrainian Urban Forum, Cherkasy, Ukraine6–10.06.2026 as part of DOCU/SYNTHESIS Interdisciplinary Art Programme, Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine01.08.2024 within a retrospective at the third KORDON Art Film Festival (KOFF) in Kärdla, Hiiumaa island, Estonia