Nostalgia (2020, HD Video, 10'18'')
Language: English
A Poetical Digital Story by Tina Bikic
Credits
Written, Narrated, Directed and Edited by Tina Bikic
Contemporary dancer
Ellinor Ødegård Staurbakk
Cintematographer
Selina Becker
Music
Landscape by Lola de Mata
Gnossienne Nº1 by Trans Alp
Space
Filmed on Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island), Berlin
NOSTALGIA
INBE(TWEEN)ACHES OF BERLIN
ABOUT
Poetics of space: Constructing imaginary worlds (2.5) + Tone, music and atmosphere (2.8)
Imaginative ways: On story formation (3.4) + Writing and rewriting of emotional landscapes (3.5)
Rhythm: Writing, narrating, editing (2.9) + Holding time: Narrative absence as technique (2.10)
About
In Be(tween)aches of Berlin is an art series of six poetical digital stories devoted to the embodied experience and exploration of the poetics of space. Inspired by spaces and their capacity to evoke memory and affect, the series focuses on questioning places of belonging and the state of in-betweenness.
The central figure is a woman, both swimmer and dancer, envisioned as a futuristic figure and conceived as the author’s double. Challenging herself through swimming and contemporary dance, she traverses different emotional states during the process of finding a home, questioning identity, finding refuge in past memories, and confronting an acute desire for belonging. All the digital stories are inspired by Gaston Bachelard’s book The Poetics of Space.
Methods
Nostalgia forms part of the six-film omnibus In Be(tween)aches of Berlin, sharing its conceptual and methodological framework.The method behind In Be(tween)aches of Berlin began with a conceptual decision: to merge two diverse geographies, my distant peninsula home on the Adriatic and my new urban home in Berlin, into one continuous emotional and spatial landscape. I was searching for a single connective element that could link these incompatible places, and I chose water as the unifying principle.
Space remain a central subject of my research. I explore how architecture functions as an affective container of memory and how its atmosphere shapes emotional perception. Each space is approached as both a material setting and an affective field of memory. Although rooted in personal memory, the work felt as if it were happening in the future. The connection between memory and imagination interested me the most. I spend extended periods in chosen locations, writing and observing how each space shapes my emotional and narrative response
On screen, I introduced a female figure, swimmer and dancer, as my double, an embodied projection that allowed me to study the tension between lived experience and performed embodiment. Water and dance both mirrored symbols of displacement and transformation. Without my own film equipment, I collaborated with two cinematographers, using their perspectives to test different visual approaches and to develop what later became my method of Poetical Digital Storytelling.
Reflection
Each digital story is created through writing, filming, editing, and narrating. This process explores how voice, rhythm, and spatial memory can transform physical locations into emotional geographies. Alongside this conceptual frame, I explore how memory, voice, and imagination can alter the way space is perceived and emotionally experienced. The beaches, spaces of fluid identity, solitude, and longing, served as metaphors for emotional in-betweenness. I am interested in how psychological movement through emotions can be mirrored in spatial movement through Berlin's architecture. I continue to ask: How do we belong to a space? Does architecture shape us, or does our imagination give space its meaning?
Through this process, I came to understand my role not only as an artist but as a researcher investigating method, exploring how space, affect, and artistic process generate knowledge through moving image, text, and embodied narration. The project functioned as a methodological experiment in translating belonging into form and discovering how imagination reshapes space through artistic practice.
Screenings
2021 Art Visuals & Poetry Film Festival, Vienna, Austria, International Audience Award
2021 U kvadrat: Special Issue “Spaces of Necessity, Movement!”, Screening and Artist Talk, Kinoklub Split, Split, Croatia
Trying to get accustomed to different views, I find myself paused in a blink.
-EXCERPT FROM NOSTALGIA
Nostalgia
Written and Narrated by Tina Bikic
In my memories I remember all the colors, and even if they fade,
I come to the same place,
and…
keep my eyes open.
I allow this almost sacred place
to entwine the function of my imagination, memory and perception into one.
I Abandoment
Marmorpalais, Potsdam, Germany
2020
II Excitement
Strandbad Müggelsee, Berlin, Germany
2020
III Fear
Schlachtensee, Berlin, Germany
2020
IV Nostalgia
Pfaueninsel, Berlin, Germany
2020
2020
2020
IV Belonging
Strandbad Plötzensee, Berlin, Germany
V Desire for belonging
Strandbad Wannsee, Berlin, Germany
LOCATIONS
IN BE (TWEEN)ACHES OF BERLIN
This section maps the architectural locations that shaped In Be(tween)aches of Berlin. Each location can be viewed as a place within the research and as a link to the corresponding work in the series.
