Abiding Nowhere

Barefoot, with a shaved head and dressed in a red robe, a Buddhist monk walks slowly yet determinedly through the forest, over stones and meadows. He weaves through the shadows of trees and houses. He enters a train station, a church, a museum. The sun rises and sets as the monk passes through the city of Washington.

“Abiding Nowhere” (“Apraṭiṣṭhita”) is a continuation of the Zen cycle of video art, short films, and feature films (“Where”) by Taiwanese classic Tsai Ming-liang, in which literally nothing happens except for extremely slow and continuous movement, allowing the viewer to explore all shades of their own emotions when confronted with such unfamiliar speeds in modernity.