SYNOPSIS
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Quinn has a magical fridge that is constantly filled with new exotic delicacies. She generously shares all the gifts with the people in her immediate vicinity. Their lives revolve around luxury, lust and ecstasy. They don’t waste a thought on how they get all the delicacies in the first place and how Quinn’s magic fridge actually works. It works and that is the main thing. It’s only when it starts to give less and less and finally seems to be completely defective that they are forced to take a closer look at it. The warranty has long since expired and the instructions for use are too complicated. Out of desperation, Quinn starts to take it apart and finds the source of the apparent magic.

MOTIVATION
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A sashimi quality red tuna fillet with mango avocado dip and a macadamia chia seed pudding. Exotic delicacies have long been part of our everyday lives and seem to be available anytime, anywhere. A state of being that is becoming increasingly absurd due to the ever more acute climate crisis. As long as the luxury flows and the consequences are still easy to ignore, we seem to have no serious interest in change. We apply certain mechanisms to protect our psyche from the complex crisis and its consequences. Lonely Mouth plays precisely with this mechanism of repression and its consequences. At the same time, artist Omani Frei remains true to her visual language in dealing with social issues. The moral club and the threatening forefinger are left out. By depicting the situation in an emotionally moving and exaggerated but essentially accurate way, the viewers are encouraged to become more sensitive to the subject and their own attitude towards it.

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Work in progress
Frame-by-frame animation | digital hand drawn
Script funded by Vorarlberger Landesregierung 
Animation/Film funded by SLM Sächsische Landesmedienanstalt

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Fortuna is a short film that shows the impressive beauty of the semi-wild Camargue horses in the Isola della Cona nature reserve. The film was made during the artist residency „Searth“ at Isola della Cona, where the horses are used as part of a project to restore the natural ecosystem. The film shows the unusual restrained and respectful attitude of the local people and the harmonious relationship between humans and animals in this unique environment..
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3:50 min
2022

SYNOPSIS
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One day a seed falls on the planet Hanasu. It lands at Kori’s feet. According to tradition, every piece of flora on the planet is collected immediately, but Kori hesitates. The beautiful perfection of this little piece of nature makes him doubt his traditions and habits.

06:40 min
Frame-by-Frame animation | digital hand drawn
Music: Jan Kosyk | Omani Frei
2022

A red silhouette in the middle of an indefinable room. Her movements are slow and circular. Although the red colour stands out against the background, the figure hardly seems tangible. Symbols pass by, showing us a demarcated area in which is is moving. An invisible border that keeps the outside world away from her. Unexpectedly, small details appear on her silhouette and the enclosed space seems to dissolve for a moment. But one waits in vain for more. Outlines that would define her and at the same time form the intersection with the outside world are absent and the small details come and go. What remains is the red silhouette, surrounded by an invisible border. But as long as the red silhouette stands out from the background, she is still there. With her dreams, hopes and her history.
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The video combines four different levels. The starting point is the song „Susi“ by singer-songwriter Tini Bot. The dancer Rika Yotsumoto interpreted the song in her performance, while Omani Frei created the drawn animation on top of it. And finally, Nina Behnisch designed 8 animated symbols inspired by the song lyrics. All four layers together create the music video for „Susi“.

Music video
Animation | Editing: Omani Frei
Animation | Symbols: Nina Behnisch
Music: Tini Bot & Band
Dancer: Rika Yotsumoto
05: 53 min
2022

As a small sensation it appears in the beginning, but soon the feeling is permanently present. The feeling to be constantly in search of something and never arriving. The restless search for the unknown destination, which brings you the long awaited inner peace. But how to reach a goal that has no name and eludes any concrete description.
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Signposts from outside seem to be the solution. Easy to read and unambiguous, they appear everywhere in abundance. Not like your own, which are deeply hidden within yourself and often only show themselves in an encrypted form.
You only have to choose the right ones.
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So it seems.

Animation/Installation (2D animation, hand drawn)
Film: Omani Frei
Sound: Omani Frei
Mastering: Jan Kosyk
05:30 min
2020

Everything seems quiet in the small flat. Unspectacularly, the band blends into the scenery. Their movements are languid and slow. They seem preoccupied with themselves and their own perception.
But the idyllic tranquillity is disturbed by a colourful, constantly changing animation that is superimposed on various parts of the interior.
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Music video
Music & Lyric: Andi Valandi & Band
Director of photography & Editing: Omani Frei
Light: Jan Kosyk
03:28 min
2021

Cranes, drawn with clear lines on paper, formed the starting point of this work.
.The focus was on the old Japanese Senbazuru legend and thus the number one thousand. But over time it became clear that each drawing represented its own strong individual. It was no longer about the one thousand drawn cranes as a large group, but about each individual crane. How similar were they? What characteristics did they have? Which groups could be formed?
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I decided to have an algorithm programmed. This compared all the crane drawings with each other and created a first overview of possible similarities and differences. After that, more and more features were added: number of lines, the yellow tone of the paper, wingspan… and the number of enclosed areas, which led to their later name area crane. Slowly, more and more character traits were added. Thus, one crane appeared sluggish during prolonged observation, the next playful.
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Over time, 1000 crane drawings became 1000 individual and precisely determined area cranes.
The collected knowledge will be published in a three-part identification book:
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Volume 1 | Swarm behavior
Volume 2 | Names
Volume 3 | Identification book
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An old Japanese legend says that whoever folds one thousend paper cranes will get a wish fulfilled by the gods.
If you unfold such a crane, a geometric pattern remains on the paper. In the Senbazuru II and Senbazuru III series, this pattern represents a folded crane.
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Senbazuru II contains one thousand such geometric patterns drawn with ink on nine sheets of cardboard. The Paper is extremely sensitive to light and without certain protective measures, the sheets yellow more and more over time and the drawings disappear.
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For Senbazuru III 370 such crane patterns were silkscreened onto paper and divided into 4 small series.

„Lepidoptera“ is the scientific denomination of butterflies. Since antiquity the butterfly serves as a picture of the soul. In Ancient Greek it even bears the same name „ψυχή“. The title of the animation short film by Omani Frei thus suggests an analysis of the soul. And indeed, it begins like an experimental arrangement with a single female figure in the middle of an undefined space without background. […]
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An excerpt from the text „Soul“ by Dr. Alexander Wiehart for the short film Lepidoptera.
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05:18 min
Animation | hand drawn on paper
Film: Omani Frei
Music: Jonas Holfeld
2017