Ben Rivers: Mare’s Nest

Mare’s Nest (2025), the latest film by British artist and filmmaker Ben Rivers, co-produced by Batalha, stems from a reflection on the global anxiety faced by young people growing up on our planet. Inspired by Don DeLillo’s play The Word for Snow, the work follows the journey of Moon, a child wandering through a mysterious world without adults, where new possibilities for life emerge.

The exhibition of the same name presented at Batalha Centro de Cinema includes a three-channel installation based on scenes and other content filmed in the context of Mare’s Nest, accompanied by photographic works by the artist, and an installation of the segment The Minotaur (2022), where the director stages a labyrinthine chase by a group of children after this mythical creature.

In Mare’s Nest, Ben Rivers revisits themes he has explored throughout his filmography, such as the relationship between humans and other forms of life, childhood and the climate emergency.

Ben Rivers was born in Somerset, UK in 1972 and lives and works in London. Rivers’ films are typically intimate portrayals of solitary beings or isolated communities; his practice as a filmmaker treads a line between documentary and fiction. Rivers uses these themes as a starting point from which to imagine alternative narratives and existences in marginal worlds. In 2025 his film Mare’s Nest won the Pardo Verde at the Locarno Film Festival.