I Am a Spy

When I wake up you're not here.
You are lost.
Lost at sea. Lost in space. I have no idea what this lost means.

Here I am in a time when we can move more and see more than anyone at any point in history so why are we standing still, why have we become so watchful and so performative?

Look at what I'm doing. It's easy for me to distract myself. It's hard for me to stay with the reality of loss.

This is a real story. In Africa a female agent was caught spying when she crossed a new national border into a neighbouring country. She'd become a spy for honourable reasons.  That was the fantasy. The reality came when she was captured by the enemy and tortured and killed. Her body was dumped back over the boprder. Dead, she was disowned by both sides.

Every day her body was buried by her mother and every night it was dug up.

If we're not allowed territory then where can we live? Where can we be dead?

This story ends when the nuts in a nearby convent walls. It wasn't home but it was somewhere.

Does death always bring this kind of exile?

Earth and air.

British artist Sarah Wood (1967) is an author of found footage films. She works mainly with documentary footage, exploring the relationship between history and individual memory and the role played by archival institutions. Jihlava IDFF previously presented her film For Cultural Purposes Only (2009).