You are about to die.
Your death rite of choice is Celestial Bridging.
In Black Hole Descending the boundaries between life and death blur as this obscure ritual unfolds.
Using the particular lingo of educational science or sci-fi films, Rita Macedo proposes a mental experiment in which the perceptual contradictions of quantum and relativity theories are playfully highlighted near the edge of a black hole – and she does this for the second time, remember This particular nowhere (2015), where physicist Eugene Wigner’s proposal about the influence of the observer (of the observer) was taken literally in an infinite succession of linked gazes. The director presents a situation of ‘celestial bridging’ where a death gasp occurs near the event horizon, where the fabric of space-time is highly distorted. What results is a paradox between the experience of death (fleeting) and the vision of mourning (immensely distended). Black Hole Descending orchestrates this solemn event to – in the most literal way and as an expression of queer desire – turn it into a slow-motion slapstick gag. ‘In space, no one can hear you laugh.’ (Ricardo Vieira Lisboa)
