These Cars Do Not Exist is an audiovisual performance by Torus – the alias of multidisciplinary artist Joeri Woudstra – and artist and filmmaker Mark Prendergast. The piece originated during the lockdown, in which both artists experimented with filming everyday things from their windows. After discovering patterns in the recordings, both artists began to exchange their work and started to search for a captivating narrative.
These Cars Do Not Exist starts from a POV human perspective of a 5:30 AM sunrise in the coastal area of The Hague, a day which saw one of the roughest seas of this year. It then slowly transforms into a non-human trip, in which the nature that has remained untouched by pandemic affairs becomes the active subject in the video.
About the artists
Torus is internationally known for both his club-oriented work, sound design and ambient projects. He treats dance music as a tool to reflect on the politics and aesthetics of pop culture. He toys with the structures and forms of sub genres such as trance, electronic and many harder styles, and brings a critical and adventurous stance to any stage. He’s also active as an installation artist and created soundtracks/designs for Metahaven’s Benjamin Bratton stream, an installation for documenta 14 co-produced with Malibu, and the shows of fashion designer Duran Lantink.
Mark Prendergast is an artist and filmmaker with a highly experimental approach to the moving image. His films mesh Structural film strategies with the elastic potential of contemporary digital imaging technologies, pointing to their own construction in order to talk about the way the moving image mediates and functions in contemporary society. His films are also very associative, drawing out connection and narrative from disparate recorded moments. Besides collaborating with international artists such as Mark Lecky, Prendergast also works with fashion designer Duran Lantink.