XXXSpace is an essay film that emerges from the sensory and symbolic collapse of our time. Set in a dystopian—yet real—context where three simultaneous wars shape the global imaginary, the film presents an iconographic collection of images gathered since 2022, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. Since then, missiles, explosions, and ballistic diagrams have become part of the global visual landscape, composing a new grammar of war spectacle. The title, XXXSpace, alludes both to the world of pornography and to the aerospace ambitions of lunatic billionaires, colliding the phallic imaginary of war with that of space conquest. The images are accompanied by a technical, almost clinical voiceover that obsessively details the functioning of each missile, rocket, and propulsion system—their ranges, weights, and velocities. This neutral, impersonal narration stands in stark contrast to the explicit violence of the images, making the banalization of weaponry as visual spectacle even more disturbing.
A film by THE-ICONOMIST, 20m25s, color, sound.