Satellite images of various landscapes: When taken from higher up, we can recognize coastlines and follow the courses of rivers. At closer range, we can differentiate between deciduous and coniferous forests, paths and roads, marshy meadows and fields. The subdued greens and browns and the mostly untouched nature convey a sense of tranquility. But the melancholy orchestral music of Arvo Pärt is soon joined by garish red and yellow lines that cross the planes, dividing them with little consideration of the existing formations.
This rhythmic process, accompanied by a musical accelerando and crescendo, races over the landscape at an increasingly fast pace, covering it with increasingly dense abstract patterns. This is beautiful to watch and, in light of the title, also sad. Market sentiment is an economic term which refers to an atmosphere during which makes investors more or less likely to put money into a certain area. In Estonia, formerly a part of the Soviet Union which became independent in 1991, the current market sentiment is “euphoric” thanks to economically liberal laws. The lines are taken from actual real-estate registers of Estonian land which has been sold or is currently for sale. Musil’s four-minute animation entitled Market sentiments addresses this abstract and seemingly static set of circumstances and puts it back in motion, as it in fact is: In its precise, brief form, this film makes the market pressures visible, while assuming a political stance with its inherent means.