The Figuration of the Shipwreck as Political Commentary in Hydra Decapita, an Essay-Film by The Otolith Group

Abstract

Hydra Decapita (2010) is an essay-film by the British artcollaborative The Otolith Group. In the tradition of the cinematic essay firstly experimented with by film-makers such as Dziga Vertov, Chris Marker and Harun Farocki, Hydra Decapita uses the artistic language of the moving image as a self-reflexive political commentary on the present. Specifically, the artwork is a reflection on the contemporary global economic crisis that erupted in 2008, which the Group considers in its biopolitical consequences. According to The Otolith Group, the current crisis is one of the systemic economic catastrophes pertaining to what they call disaster capitalism (A Sunken Trembling).1 The quote - drawn from Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine book2 - refers to the capitalist recurring cycle of destruction of the existing economic order and to the ways in which companies profit from actual or virtual disasters. For the Group, the current economic crisis is a quintessential manifestation of the neoliberal link between economy and speculation, in which the ever present virtual threat of bankruptcy, work loss and debt default becomes a shortcut to introduce emergency measures such as cuts, taxations or changes to the labour regulations. These, in turn, are the biopolitical expressions of neo-liberalism: if biopolitics, in Foucault's definition, is the power to foster life or disallow it to the point of death,3 then the uneven way in which these measures affect the population can be seen as biopolitical.However, adhering to the tradition of the essay-film, the political commentary on the current situation is not expressed in a straightforward manner. On the contrary, the temporality of the present is juxtaposed with other temporal lines, which recall the links between present, past and future. Indeed, to add to the film's original take on the global crisis, the artwork associates the present-day linkage between biopolitics and financial speculation with earlier moments in history. Specifically, Hydra Decapita reverts to the times of slavery during the Atlantic Trade as an important forerunner of contemporary times. By addressing the infamous story of the Zong slave ship, The Otolith Group returns to a time when the insurance system of the human cargo of slave ships - a very early example of economic speculation - often induced ruthless trade companies and ship captains to drown all the slaves on board in the likelihood of a shipwreck, so as to obtain a refund from the insurance companies. In these circumstances, a virtual risk could be used to the slave-trade companies' advantage, thus obeying an economy- and money-driven impulse to maximize the profits of a few at the expense of others. This link between past and present economy, speculation and biopolitics is expressed in Hydra Decapita through the reiterated use of an allegory - that of the shipwreck, with its aligned figurations of wreckages, maritime tempests and drowning. 2 3This article unfolds a critical exploration of the multiple manifestations in the essay-film of the recalls between the global economic wreckage and the shipwrecks in the days of slavery, in order to foster the discussion on the ways in which contemporary and urgent issues may be addressed, reflected upon and tackled by way of images.The Zong affair in Hydra Decapita: linking the present with the pastOne of the first international presentations of Hydra Decapita was held in March 2011 in Frankfurt (Germany), a city perceived as the symbol of European finance. The Otolith Group was asked to organize and conduct a three-day screening event, in which issues of international relevance would be addressed through the language of the moving-image. The communique for the event, entitled A Sunken Trembling Recalled Dimly, opens as follows:To live and work ... in 2011 is to be exposed to an experience of social, cultural, political, financial, educational, economic, public and aesthetic crisis . …