Me gustaría que todo esto terminase de una vez (fragmentos)

Raúl Bajo Ibañez


This is an extremely personal video, bordering on the confessional; but not because of it untransferable. Its origin lies, according to the author, in a “personal situation of sentimental break up”. The dedication that opens the piece seems to manifest this first purpose of the piece as an inner exorcism and as the expression, still latent, of an ardent love affection, as well as of the feeling of emptiness following the separation. On the other hand, the fragmentary character of the five consecutive sequences is made explicit in the title. These sequences are very loosely joined together by titles, also of a fragmentary nature, such as interrupted sentences. The restlessness that permeates the piece is thereby expressed in an abstract manner, even though the images (the author’s own or appropriated ones) may be extremely literal in terms of being representations – archetypes even – of passionate couples, kisses, erotic outbursts, a scene of farewell and separation. There is even a certain feeling of desperation and weariness.

The author refers to this piece as “a meditation on the feeling of loneliness, on the precarious nature of the amorous feeling, on the pain that its loss produces and on the difficulty and irony of existence.” At the start and end of the video, we hear voices that acquire a melancholy grain. They sound like spectral psychophonies that speak of rage, fear, impotence, disgust, death and suffering. The five sequences which constitute the piece seem disconnected due to the disparity in content and treatment: multiplied images abound, framed and disturbed by electronic visual noise. It is like stealing kisses from the silver screen, stealing its romances, its black and white passions; super-8 images of a trip, images out of frame, multiplied and frozen within distorted sounds; fixed shots of a cemetery, with inserts of “madonnas in ecstasy” from pornographic tapes; a cinematic sequence electronically blurred along a melodic stale and tacky song; at last, erratic movements taken from a window (and, at the same time, enclosed and framed, a window within the screen), that stop at the brief encounter between a woman and a man who, consequently, say farewell and leave each other.

These fragments are barely linked together by title headings which, already in the final sequence, form a more articulate text, which underlines the images. These utterances are nevertheless absentminded, hesitant and restless: “It is obviously all a lie, another vain attempt at generating meaning, at scaring away the usual ghosts. My images do not redeem me, neither do my words. I know very well that all I can expect are empty rooms. Maybe I will construct a skin suit, without measure, without scars, without memory...”

Technical datasheet

  • Title: Me gustaría que todo esto terminase de una vez (fragmentos)
  • Direction: Raúl Bajo Ibañez
  • Production: Raúl Bajo Ibañez. 1995.
  • Duration: 00:08:07
  • Languages: Spanish
  • Original format: U-Matic
  • Formats: Betacam Digital - DVD
  • TV systems: NTSC - PAL
  • License: Copyright