Ann-Cecile Thiesen and Petra Charvátová

One scene, different perceptions.

Baptizing. Several women get baptized in a river or a lake, the ceremony is lead by men. The women wait in line to get baptized and the men guide them out of the water. The first woman about to be baptized seems to be in pain and grief until she gets her blessing. After that she seems relieved and freed. Right after she is done, two men guide her out of the water and the next woman gets in place to be baptized. While guided out of the water, the woman seems exhausted, not fully conscious of the situation, and it seems as if the water is something old she lets behind her and the land she is approaching is a new world, the new life that lies ahead of her. She can't even believe it, is overwhelmed by commencing a new era.

Baptizing. A ceremony which should wash away all your sins, “rebirth of the spirit”. After that, you are clean, tabula rasa, equal to every other member of the church, able to start anew, start a better life. Is it even possible? I can't believe it. And the impression that this rendering of the ritual gives only deepens my disbelief. The original footage shows the baptism of a woman. Interestingly enough, the camera is not shooting the ceremony as such, it follows the woman. She looks quite scared and averse to anything what is happening to her. Or she might be just confused and experiencing the spiritual turmoil immediately preceding the great event (though she doesn't look particularly relieved even afterwards).

There is the discrepancy of the actual event/happening and the perception of the viewers.

There is the real event, sometime in the past a baptizing took place and a woman was baptized. That is reality. The person who documented it had some intention for doing it. Was he documenting the ceremony or was he a friend of the woman or did he want to document the event but then got distracted by the extraordinary expression of the woman? And than there is a viewer who interprets the scene in one way or the other. What has to be considered are the changes which are made on the original footage and which change the perception. The nightmarish music, the fact the projection speed is slowed down a bit and also the partial change of the colours (possibly solarisation) affects the way we perceive what is happening.

For me, the event itself does not play the primary role. It is the behavior of the people taking part in it. All those women waiting in line, as if they were waiting for something really special. Maybe it is something really special to them. But maybe not to all of them. Which ones are there voluntarily and which ones are there due to group and community pressure. How come, one woman is taken away by the situation, loses her mind over a splash of cold water, and an other one simply smiles and seems to enjoy a fresh bath surrounded by fellow bathers. To whom is this event, the baptizing, a serious and important ritual? And how would you know? Is there an appropriate behavior or expression? And if so, who is behaving in the right way?

For me, the woman is suffering, she is not going through the ritual voluntarily, somebody dragged her there, two man are holding her firmly and plunge her into the water and another two men are taking her somewhere afterwards.

But the opinion people have on religion might play a part in the understanding of the scene as well. If a person is prejudiced against everything concerning institutionalized religion and churches he/she brings different background than a member of a church. Obviously, the whole baptizing is supposed to be symbolic purification etc. but it just seems like a pretense to forget about all the bad things a person has done and indeed start with them anew. To behave in a way which allows me to live without guilty conscience and be responsible for my actions seems more reasonable and honest to me. Naturally, nobody 's perfect but if a person tries to change, some ritual is not going to do it. It is a process and personal determination and strong will are much more important.