THE GAZE OF THE OTHER IS ALIENATING

Duration: 1 week

Directing/Cinematography: Vasileia Dereli

Editing: Vasileia Dereli, Marios Pavlou

Sound Design: Myrto Christou, Nikos Arvanitis. 

With Myrto Christou, Lisa Nase and Vasileia Dereli in front of the camera.

We become aware of ourselves only when confronted with the gaze of the Other, according to the existentialists. This gaze, says J.P. Sartre, immediately objectifies us and makes us deny our consciousness and freedom inherent to us.

At the same time, we recognise these qualities on the person that looks at us. In response to that gaze we will assert ourselves as free and concious, and attempt to objectify the individual who is objectifying us, thus reversing the relationship.

Following someone, in my point of view, is closely related with projecting on them qualities that we want to see in ourselves. The person followed is, in a way, a mirror, a reflective surface where we can get a glimpse of what we're yearning for. To resist the gaze of the other; that is the test.

As I read somewhere, "looking is a fundamental pleasure, invited or not. Voyeurism has its own innocence".