From Behind the Teeth

Artist Mox Mäkelä and scientist Mikael Fortelius play chess using teeth as board pieces. Their improvised, ‘no rules’ chat sparks a free-associative cascade of ideas, metaphors, digital collages, snippets of footage and strange objects. An evident homage to surrealism, From Behind the Teeth is absurdist, thought-provoking fun.

In René Clair’s classic 1924 short Entr’acte, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray played a surreal game of chess until they were swept away by a jet of water. As 2024’s 100th anniversary of surrealism still lingers in the cultural air, it’s a good moment to drop in on renowned Finnish artist Mox Mäkelä as she engages the scientific researcher Mikael Fortelius in an even more bizarre and extended chess game – using teeth as the board pieces.

In one sense, the personal identities of these players are unimportant, the camera deliberately shoots them from above or otherwise blots out their faces. They never stop talking, but this is not a sweet, filmed chat in the vein of My Dinner with Andre (Louis Malle, 1982). What matters is the flight of stories, images and metaphors triggered by the improvised, meandering chess game. Digital collages, snippets of footage and strange objects punctuate or illustrate the many themes that arise in the course of conversation: consumption, digestion, communication, rumination, war … and most of it literally surrounded and framed by a gaping, toothy mouth! Landing somewhere between Monty Python and Pipilotti Rist, From Behind the Teeth is a hymn to absurdist creativity and free-associative fun.

– Adrian Martin

Trailer

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