The Circular Form in Ten Thousand Waves - A Cine-Installation Created by Isaac Julien

This paper is an analysis of the cine-installation, Ten Thousand Waves, by Isaac Julien, shown in Sao Paulo in 2012, which is composed of 9 contiguous screens that create a circular space of exposition through which the viewer moves. The mythical Chinese goddess Mazu is represented in the work crossing the screens constantly in conjunction with a narrative of the historic times of that country: Imperial, Modern and Contemporary. The viewer moves never having a whole vision of the work, because there are two screens in the center which contribute to a visual fragmentation. Julien builds up a simultaneous relation among the shots in the screens, where the cognitive effect of the montage, as in linking different shots, is transferred to the viewer. This montage procedure was named by Lev Manovich spatial montage; in this case, the temporality of the moving image is spaced in a circular form.