The Silent Majority Speaks
Harstad Kino
Kr 110,-
THESE CAMERAS STAY ON - KURATERT PROGRAM OG PANEL//CURATED PROGRAM AND PANEL
Presentasjon av kurator Anastasia Patsey+filmklipp+panel med Kjetil Jacobsen og Jon
Nordenson, om sosiale medier og bevegelige bilders rolle i revolusjon, med filmer fra
Egypt, Syria, Iran og Libanon. //Presentation by curator Anastasia Patsey+filmclips+panel with Kjetil Jacobsen and Jon Nordenson, about the role of social media and moving image´s role in revolution, with film screenings from Egypt, Syria, Iran and Libanon.
Se lenger ned for å kjøpe billett til enkeltvisninger av utvalgte filmer. //Scroll further down to buy tickets for the separate screenings of Rabih Mroué, The Pixelated Revolution (2012) Duration: 60’00”, Bani Khoshnoudi, The Silent Majority Speaks (Egypt/Lebanon, 2014) Duration: 94’00" and Lara Baladi, Alone, Together... In Media Res (2012) Duration: 42’00”.
Kuratortekst av Anastasia Patsey (på engelsk)
This screening program dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the October
Revolution initiates a dialogue about the complex relationships between the art of the
moving image and the phenomenon of Revolution in the modern perspective. It is
neither a historical chronicle, nor an illustrative compilation, but a research on the
power of the image, the new forms of collaboration between the artist and the
anonymous operator, the new language and toolkits of civil resistance of the 21st
century.
In March 2010 Jafar Panahi — one of the most influential filmmakers of the Iranian
New Wave — was arrested for participating in anti-governmental protests. He
received a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year prohibition of filmmaking and
interviews. During his home-arrest Jafar Panahi created “This Is Not a Film” (2011)
— a documentary in a form of a video diary. In one scene his friend — documentarist
Moijtaba Mirtahmasb — says: “Listen, Jafar. What matters is that this is documented.
It matters that these cameras stay on.”
The moving image rather than the printed words became one of the main weapons
of civil resistance during various revolutionary movements in the former Soviet
republics, the Balkans and the Middle East in the 2000s. The image of a protestor
holding up a mobile phone and documenting everything that is happening around to
share original footage online turned out to be iconic especially for the events of the
Arab Spring. Social media and smartphones enabled a massive engagement in
political uprisings of the 21st century. While adding a new dimension to the political
arena, they reinvent social activism as such. Together, protestors created vast media
archives and transmitted an independent, unfiltered vision of the revolutions.
Throughout the human history the phenomenon of revolution has been presented as
a liberating and empowering event. Many people who participate in revolutionary
movements describe these moments as the best times of their lives when almost
anything is possible. Nowadays the image of the revolution is often appropriated and
instrumentalised by mass culture. It is presented to the consumer in close connection
to such values as freedom, unity, solidarity, progress, expression. The heritage of the
most famous revolutions — e.g. the French Revolution or the October Revolution —
is transformed into a brand, a product that can be consumed worldwide in many
different ways and formats. The dramatic and the tragical of the Revolution is left
behind and supplanted by romance, euphoria and poetry by the apparatus of
historical memory-making.
Revolutionary events happening today are difficult to compare to the ones well know
to us from the past century. They have different mechanics, follow different patterns
and use different instruments. Besides the socio-political situation, the main
distinctive aspect of the revolutions taking place in the 21st century is the way they
are communicated. In 2017, one hundred years after the “Red October”, the
audience is invited to take part in a dialogue about the complex relationships
between the moving image and the phenomenon of Revolution. How do they
interact, affect and engage each other? What language do they speak? Where are
the borders between artistic work, documentation and propaganda? These are some
questions that the discussion will be built around.
In the framework of four sessions the screening program “These Cameras Stay On”
presents works by artists and filmmakers that are based on authentic nonprofessional footage created by participants of revolutionary events and shared on social media platforms. In opposition to professional documentaries and other films, many of which were released in cinemas, the selected works are nor a historical chronicle of the revolutions, neither an illustrative compilation. “These Cameras Stay On” presents examples of collaboration between the artist and the anonymous operator, the dual character of the protestor as agent and object of change, the new languages and toolkits of civil resistance.
Filmklipp fra// Film clips from:
Rabih Mroué, The Pixelated Revolution (2012) Duration: 60’00”
Khaled Hafez, The Video Diaries (2011) Duration: 06’19" (Hele filmen)
Lara Baladi, Alone, Together... In Media Res (2012) Duration: 42’00”
Bani Khoshnoudi, The Silent Majority Speaks (2014) Duration: 94’00"
Khaled Hafez, The Video Diaries (2011) Duration: 06’19"
The Video Diaries is a three-channel video with synchronised timelines placed next
to each other. This work — initially co-produced by and first exhibited at the Mercusol
Biennale, Brazil in September 2011 — documents the artist’s personal experience of
the Egyptian revolution in January and February of 2011. Referring to the concept of “aesthetic journalism” The author combines his own original video footage with stock images, materials from TV reports and social media and forms several parallel narratives that intertwine on the three screens. The film is accompanied by a music piece that creates a simulated fictitious atmosphere and mediates the feeling of intimacy and nostalgia. The Video Diaries capture “the immediacy of that minute-to-minute transition, away from autocracy and oppression and towards a new, albeit uncertain, future for Egypt” (Allam Y. Khaled Hafez and the art of Revolution – from Premonition to Stockholm Syndrome. P. 130).
Khaled Hafez is one of Egypt’s prominent artists working with painting, video,
installation and photography. His works have been shown at international festivals
and biennales including the Bamako Biennial (Mali, 2011), Porto Allegre (Brazil,
2011), Manifesta 8 (Spain, 2010), the 12th Cairo Biennale (Egypt, 2010) and at
exhibitions in Europe and the USA. In his practice Khales Hafez researches the complex nature of the Egyptian identity and “what it means to be Egyptian in a post
September 11 world” (Allam Y. Khaled Hafez and the art of Revolution – from
Premonition to Stockholm Syndrome. P. 127).
Vises i sin helhet // Screenings
Rabih Mroué, The Pixelated Revolution (2012) Duration: 60’00”
FREDAG 20. okt kl. 11.40// Harstad Kino // Engelsk tekst
Kr 110,-
The “Pixelated Revolution” by internationally celebrated Lebanese artist Rabih
Mroué is one of the most important and famous works featuring anonymous footage
from revolution sites. Its premiere took place in 2012 during dOCUMENTA (13) in
Kassel, Germany in the form of a “non-academic” lecture. The artist observes,
interprets and comments eyewitness footage of murder of civilians in Syria and the
continuing reproduction of these images online. While defining the aesthetics of the amateur footage, the artists observes its similarities with the Danish avant-garde filmmaking movement Dogme 95. Their manifesto, written in 1995 by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, states: “Shooting must be done on location, the sound must never be produced apart from the images, the camera must be hand-held, the film must be in colour, filters are forbidden, no superficial action, the director must not be credited” (Encyclopedia of
the Documentary Film. Ed. Aitken I. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge, 2006. P. 315.).
The famous video shot in July 2011 that ends with the operator being shot by a
sniper who he is filming, is theorised, taken apart into single frames, zoomed in and
deconstructed. “In which manner can we envisage the photographic traces broadcast
by the Syrians in the vast universe of the Internet? Are the broken-up and incomplete
images sent by the Syrians an extension of their physical experience? Is the mobile
phone an extension of their brains, of their body, of their being?” — these are some
of the questions that Rabih Mroué investigates in his lecture-performance.
Bani Khoshnoudi, The Silent Majority Speaks (Egypt/Lebanon, 2014) Duration: 94’00"
FREDAG 20. okt kl. 17.25// Harstad Kino // Engelsk tekst
Kr 110,-
The latest revolt in Iran serves as a launching pad and as lens for the artist to explore ideas of collectivity, authority, patriarchy, memory and repetition by re- assessing or deconstructing images of the country’s modern history. Connecting and disconnecting found footage and certain moments of a shared revolutionary consciousness, the work presents a reflection through cinema and the art of the moving image on revolutionary obsessions and a new version of modernity. The Silent Majority Speaks uses archival film material of revolution, collective moments of resistance, found footage and author’s own recordings of the protests of June 2009. Mobile phone reports from YouTube play an important role in the narrative of the film and demonstrate the potential of collective internet archiving. The film was nominated by Nicole Brenez for the PRIX SCRIBE in France, and had its first public screening in 2014 at Lincoln Center in New York as part of the ART OF THE REAL film series. Dennis Lim, Director of Programming, Film Society of Lincoln Center described the work as a “eloquent inquiry into the notion of a collective memory, as well as a vivid and urgent corrective to political amnesia”.
Bani Khoshnoudi (b. 1977) studied photography and film. Since 1999, when she started making her first films, she was active as the artistic director and production coordinator for the documentary series produced in collaboration with European TV channels, founded her own production company “Pensée Sauvage Films” and curated a number of film programmes. In addition to filmmaking, Bani Khoshnoudi creates experimental media installations as a visual artist. Her projects have been exhibited in galleries in Europe, USA and the Middle East.
Lara Baladi, Alone, Together... In Media Res (2012) Duration: 42’00”
SØNDAG 22. okt kl. 22.45// Harstad Kino // Engelsk tekst
Kr 110,-
In her three-channel video Alone, Together... In Media Res artist Lara Baladi
combines imagery published online by protesters from Tahrir Square with clips from
pop-culture and international TV reports. During the days of the Egyptian uprising the
Tahir Square turned into a vibrant place for demonstrating social solidarity. As the
political tension grew, more and more media content was uploaded to YouTube along
with footages from other countries in Middle East and North Africa. Right after one of the protest videos from Cairo went viral, Lara Baladi started “Vox Populi” (http://tahrirarchives.com) — an archive of materials connected to the events
on the Tahrir Square that gathers anonymous footage, articles, news reports and
photographs. Alone, Together... In Media Res (lat. “in the midst of things”) became
the first artwork that emerged from this collection. The narrative slowly becomes
visible through video excerpts woven together into a dynamic visual essay reflecting
on many issues, such as police brutality, totalitarianism, democracy, a new
constitution, censorship, violence against women.
Egyptian-Lebanese artist Lara Baladi (b. 1969) works on the edge of personal and
socio-political narratives with such themes as cultural memory, modern mythology
and archiving in the digital age. Her practice involves a wide range of media
including installation, photography and video. Much of her recents work reflects her
"concerns with Egypt's extremely alarming sociopolitical context” (Schoene D. Art in
a Revolution: A Conversation with Lara Baladi // Afterimage. No39(5). 2012. P. 19–
22). During the 2011 Egyptian revolution and its aftermath, Lara Baladi co-founded
two important media initiatives: the public Tahrir Cinema and the online Radio Tahrir.
The projects served as a public platform to build and share a crowd-initiated media
archive on and for the revolution.
Om kurator Anastasia Patsey // About the curator:
Anastasia Patsey is a curator based in St. Petersburg, Russia and working
internationally. She graduated from the St. Petersburg State Stieglitz Art Academy
and holds a Master of Arts degree in curatorial studies from the St. Petersburg State
University and the Bard College New York. Since 2012 she is a permanent member of the curatorial team and board of the “Pushkinskaya-10” — the oldest non-governmental cultural institution in Russia (f. 1989). She also works as an independent curator in collaboration with art institutions in Russia and abroad. In 2013 Anastasia Patsey founded the “2,04
gallery” at the art centre “Pushkinskaya-10” — a shared art laboratory and project
incubator for emerging local art professionals. She is co-founder and board member of the “Paideia School” launched in 2014 as a platform for alternative art education. Since 2012 she directs the St. Petersburg International Art Residency (SPAR), which regularly hosts
interdisciplinary art professionals to from all over the world. In Fall 2015 Anastasia
Patsey was offered the directorial position at the St. Petersburg Museum of
nonconformist art (MoNA) that she currently holds.
Om paneldeltakerne // About the panel participants:
Kjetil Ansgar Jakobsen (født 18. september 1965) er en norsk historiker og sakprosaforfatter. Fra 2011 til 2014 var han Henrik Steffens-professor ved Humboldt-universitetet i Berlin. Jakobsen er spesialist på nyere fransk, tysk og norsk kultur- og idéhistorie. Hans forskningsområder er kosmopolitisme, globalisering, mediehistorie og mediefilosofi. Fra 2015 er Jakobsen professor i historie ved Nord universitet i Bodø.
Jon Nordenson er postdoktor ved Institutt for kulturstudier og orientalske språk i arabiske studier. Han ble tildelt "Babylonprisen" i 2011, delt ut av "Babylon - Nordisk tidsskrift for Midtøsten og Nord- Afrika" for beste bidrag fra yngre forskere. Han er forsker i prosjektet "Climate Change and Energy Transition in the Middle East - Discourse, practice, and state-society relations (GreenMENA)." Jon skrev doktorgradsavhandling med spørsmål: Legger internett til rette for demokratisering og annen politisk og sosial endring i Midtøsten?