Stella Particula
France
Where do you locate yourself in relation to the systems you work with?
Where are you heading, and what is pulling you there?
How would you describe the space your practice is currently unfolding in?
Artist Statement
Description
In a world left in ruins where borders have vanished, Eldin moves forward in silence, burdened by a cart. At his side walks Sava, a companion who drops small white stones along their path. As they travel, Eldin is struck by visions until the ruins of a collapsed world begin to merge with the ruins of his own memory. When time itself freezes in a space suspended between reality and illusion, Eldin must finally continue alone. ZORA (“Dawn” in serbo-croatian) is a contemplative fable about inner peace as the first condition for harmony in the world. The short film is available to watch in 4K at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GAPP50Z2fSekxnqT4GLXV_oKPkWkhAVb/view?usp=sharing
Process
This work started with an idea of making a small comic on my Instagram page. The idea was not defined, but I had two characters in mind: one was tall and had a high hat, and the other, smaller, had a small circular hat and was pulling a wooden cart. The hats and cart were important as a representation of the characters psyche and also as a way to recognize rapidly the characters. The idea was to write the scenario at the same time as creating the visuals, something very spontaneous and almost automatic - with a main storyline that was two characters walking in desolated surreal landscapes and discovering a journey towards personnal enlightment. I just made one post and 4 illustrations. The idea became then more defined as I wanted to put those original sparks into a crafted and structured video. Reminiscing of a small travel I did last year in Serbia (visiting a friend of mine) while being personnally in search of something new, I imagined a small story based on the characters I had already created. They had to wander, almost flee a state of destruction and human desolation. I then had this idea of the tall character (Sava) being the inner voice of the main character pulling the cart (that finally represents his inner burdens). Geographically, Balkans (almost a mythological version) fitted very well my concept of a land torn between cultures, wars, and exchanges of civilizations. All those ideas converged and the final spark of a contemplative journey was lit.
Tools
- Writing the scenario and dialogs while defining the tone. ChatGPT was my assistant: fact checking, translations, organisation of the chapters defined in the scenario. - Moodboard realisation using Midjourney v7. Some renders in ComfyUI (flux1Krea), for some “gore” images that mostly didn’t make the final cut. - Finding / creation of the three voices in the film using ElevenLabs: creation of two original voices, one for Sava (deep and calm voice) and one for the old woman voice-over for the prologue (old, calm but narrative). The voice of Eldin, was already available and matched the voice I needed. - Storyboarding the whole story in two ways: static images edit and sound / music at the same time. The music and sound design was important for me to have a backbone for the images and find the good rythm of storytelling. Voices generated in ElevenLabs were edited and structured at the same time the music was made in Ableton Live. Sound design was made later, alternating between video edit and sound. - Image generation editing made with Google’s NanoBanana Pro, Photoshop, and After effects. Most of the final images come from Midjourney v7, with some images generated by NanoBananaPro with shot or character references. - Video generation with Luma’s Ray 3, and start of the first edit. Upscaling with Topaz Suite. Changes were made progressively, alternating between sound and images / videos. LipSync editing with Sync.so (LipSync-2- pro). - Final editing with AfterEffects
Born in Addis Ababa in 1974, Aïda Muluneh studied film at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Her photography is included in major collections such as the MoMA and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and she has received numerous accolades, including the European Union Prize at the Rencontres de Bamako and the CRAF International Award.
I selected ZORA because beneath its technological surface I recognized a familiar rigor in its construction. The work reflects a disciplined process of composition, atmospheric lighting, restrained color palettes, and symbolic staging. Although created with AI tools, the film carries the weight of intentional world building, something central to my own practice. In my work, I begin with research and internal inquiry, then construct environments that exist between reality and myth. Light is not decorative; it is psychological. Color is not aesthetic; it is structural. In ZORA, the subdued tonal range and sculpted landscapes evoke that same method of building another universe, one shaped by memory, burden, and inner transformation. What resonated deeply is the understanding that tools are secondary to vision. Whether through camera, set design, or algorithmic generation, the artist remains the architect of meaning. The contemplative pace and metaphoric clarity of ZORA reflect a belief I share—that harmony in the world begins with reconciliation within the self.
Description
I remember Damascus on a snowy day. The narrator navigates a storm of emotions and memories, torn between extremes, heat and cold, chaos and calm. A snowy day in Damascus becomes a fleeting moment of peace amid inner turmoil. Through poetic fragments, he searches for balance in a world of constant motion and shifting identity.
Process
I was born in France, from a French father and a Costa Rican mother, but as soon as I got 2 months, my parents went in Syria for work. We lived in Damascus. I lived there for 6 years : and from those years I barely remember some images one of which is this snowy morning in our small garden, covered in snow. Some years ago, I went through a severe depression that lasted 7 years and one day, I remembered this image, calm and peaceful. I was going through lots of emotions, trying to find a balance between happiness and sadness, kind of a mental stability, equilibrium. This life abroad, this image of our garden in snow in Damascus (where you don't usually expect snow) became the symbol of the text I wrote. A text that represent the torments and inner reflexions of the narrator trying to find balance. Something that is blurry, with lots of contradictions but at the same time clear : I was thinking that everything makes sense if you link the pieces of your life. That finally, the scenario is not written, but the paths you took in life were steps that are always going forward. The struggle to find balance is something inherent to all human beings, and for artists sometimes it's something even more complicated. Juggling between our creations, the things we want to share and the vision that the viewer has of what we make. AI was very important here to express those generated and distorted memories and to have this coherence between concept and image.
Tools
Full AI video - with some real photographies (as inputs). Voice-over recorded at home. Music made on Ableton Live, with VST and modular gear. One cut is made with 3D and analog glitch gear. AI tools to clean the voice-over. AI tools for slow-motion and upscaling. Workflow: I first wrote the text and then made the music matching the mood I was going for. The voice-over was recorded very soon in the process, to have a guide for the video production phase. A moodboard was then created with reference images, and then an early storyboard was sketched. Then, on my computer, using SDXL with Loras (Fooocus as UI), a large number of reference images were generated to visually interpret different parts of the text. Experimental renders were created locally in ComfyUI using different models, prompts, and occasionally input images to explore hallucinated and dreamlike aesthetics. This stage served to feed the initial moodboard and the storyboard. Runway was used to generate most of the final AI-driven video content (with SDXL generated images or Frames generated images as inputs). It was also usefull to refine certain sketches done in ComfyUI. Real photographs were woven into the process, used as bases for generation or integrated directly. The final production process was made with the adobe suite. Colors were changed to match the concept and message of the different sequences. Lots of editing was done.
