I Declare a Thumb War is a re-enactment of a propaganda photograph found on an official military webpage. The image, which depicts a soldier playing a friendly “thumb war” game with a child, appears in different versions throughout the internet; all uploaded by official military sources. The work re-stages this absurd motif-imagining it as a veteran’s trauma. Shot within a business that sells sand in Europe, the work attempts to satirise Hollywood orientalism and subvert the language of contemporary war cinema. This repetitive act, with its absence of violence and facts, questions the ideology of endless conflict.

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Produced, Directed, Edited by: Ewan Macbeth

Cinematography: Christiaan van Leeuwen & Andreas Drosdz

Production Design: Marcus van Binsbergen

Sound Design: Filip Degernäs

Titles: Stefanie Vogl