“The almost imperceptible movement of a bright red, heart-shaped balloon across the dark surface is, in fact, the violent fall of a nearly 10-kilogram concrete object”
Attraction was filmed on the outskirts of Bogotá and captures the fall of this heavy, compact “balloon” into the water, recorded at 1,200 frames per second. The zoom momentarily cancels the sensation of descent, only to then reveal the liquid explosion caused by the impact.
What seems light conceals a devastating force. The work contrasts the emotional and physical density of the object with water’s ability to absorb violence and return to its initial calm.
Gravity—an unrelenting natural force—becomes here a metaphor for human emotions: inevitable, powerful, beautiful, and destructive at once.
“Life is only an explosion in slow motion, and I intend to compress it until it becomes ecstasy, an eternal instant”.
—José Val del Omar
