MIDDLE EAST BY MIDDLE EAST :: Interpretation, Conflict, Culture |
Friday, April 27, 2007 8:00 PM |
| MIDDLE EAST BY MIDDLE EAST Interpretation, Conflict, Culture On April 27 at 8:00 p.m. --- MIDDLE EAST BY MIDDLE EAST, Interpretation, Conflict, Culture is a compilation of works made by Iraqi, Iranian and Palestinian film and video makers who share a geo-political reality but who come from diverse backgrounds and artistic approaches and experience. From recognizable names such as Shirin Neshat and Samira Makhmalbaf, to a wide range of emerging artists in the-scenes of Chicago and Tehran, this selection of works aims to explore different ways of dealing with and representing conflict. Middle East by Middle East seeks to embody an audiovisual conversation on political, social, and human boundaries and commonalities. God, Construction, Destruction by Samira Makhmalbaf (2002) 11:09 (Iran) After the Sept. 11th incident the Afghan refugees living in Iran were worried that America might attack Afghanistan. Despite the concerns about America’s attack, a teacher gathers her Afghan children students and makes an effort to have the children observe a moment of silence in remembrance of the victims of theincident. But the children are not able to understand the significance of the event. Eventually the teacher takes them beside a very tall brick-baking furnace and tells the children: “The New York tower is something like this furnace.” Then she asks the children to stay silent for a minute for the victims of the New York tower next to the chimney, with thick smoke spewing out of it. Midwest Olympia by Wafaa Bilal (2005) 15:00 (Iraq) “In my project Midwest Olympia, Olympia represents many concepts. While Olympia is a particular reality as we visualize it, it also represents a state of mind. Midwest Olympia forces the viewer to accept my representation of one woman’s isolation within her own reality while challenging the viewer to question his own. We accept as mundane what another looking in on us may see as shocking. This is the case with our view on war. As such, Midwest Olympia represents an image of war. Because we ourselves live in our own “Olympias”, external factors do not affect us as strongly or as personally. We exist in a comfort zone in the midst of chaos, unable to recognize the goings on within our own realities. Bedouins by Basma Al-Sharif (2007) 11:00 (Palestine) A structuralist video that narrates the story of two girls who disappear off an unnamed shore to find themselves in a kind of pre-apocalyptic village. Of one Essence by Negar Tahsili (2004) 02:30 (Iran) “Of one essence…”, a famous poem of “Saadi”, Iranian poet, focuses on the kinship of all humans. The same poem is used to grace the entrance hall of nations of the UN building in New York with this call for breaking all barriers: “Of one essence is human race, truly has creation put the base; one limb impacted is sufficient, for all others to feel the Mace.” Bombshell by Usama Alshaibi (2004) 15:35 (Iraq) "Bombshell: Iraqi Secret Videos and Artifacts From a Fallen Regime" is compiled from several appropriated clips from VCD's (Video Compact Disks) that are sold on the streets of Baghdad. Peace Lullaby on the Editing Desk by Farhad Fozouni (2004) 07:00 (Iran) “Once, I was working on another short about recent Iraq-US war, while reviewing some footage which I'dt ook from many satellite TV channels, which were mostly violent & scary images. I ended up finding a portrait of young girl which was so calm, innocent and I didn't noticed it before. It was like the “Peace Lullaby” on the Editing Desk for me”. Bronze by Eddie Salem (0000) 03:20 (Palestine) Bronze is a video documentation of a difficult night in Palestine. My cousins were throwing out the rotten meat in my uncle’s refrigerator. My uncle, who was mentally retarded, did not understand, convinced they were taking away his food. I felt that I should not have been recording as he grew upset and yelled for god to take him, but I didn’t turn the camera off. The camera shakes a lot, and the time code is stuck obtrusively in the corner of the frame, set to Michigan time to boot. Open Seas by Behrang Samadzadegan (2006) 06:00 (Iran) OPEN SEAS is originally produced to participate in the 5th Gyumri biennial (2006 Armenia), with the theme of "Sea: Dreams & illusions". In fact, as an artist from the Middle-East it was my imagination about a geopolitical concept: Open Sea. An area which is full of oil sites, foreign soldiers and environmental pollutions. An open gate which brings war, death and division to its local citizens as everlasting gifts. Gaza Diary "Gaza_Journal Intime" by Taysir Batniji (2001) 05:00 (Palestine) “The dialogue between Taysir the Palestinian and Batniji the artist is most explicit in the video “Gaza_Journal Intime” (Gaza, diary), in which brief glimpses of the streets and markets of Gaza City are brutally intercut with a recurring sequence of a bloody piece of meat being chopped on a butcher's block.” Miriam Rosen, ArtForum - Summer, 2002 Passage by Shririn Neshat (2001) 11: 30 (Iran) Shirin Neshat's visually compelling films explore the culture of Islam, especially the condition of women in that world, where they have more power than is often assumed. By questioning sexual politics, Neshat reveals something of the collective condition, its rituals, conflicts, and emotions. In Passage, a group of men carry a body wrapped in white cloth across a beach; in the distance, a group of women veiled in black chadors dig a grave with their hands, while a child arranges a circle of stones. These minimal, enigmatic scenes, set to a haunting score by Philip Glass, were filmed in the Moroccan coastal town of Essaouira. Inspired by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specifically the televised images of bodies held aloft during funeral processions, Passage may be Neshat’s most timely and affecting film yet. Meghan Dailey (http://www.guggenheimcollection.org) --- More Information on any of the titles or the artists is available, feel free to contact us: microcinema2007@yahoo.com About the curators: Gonzalo Escobar and Brian Oh are students in the FVNM department of SAIC. MIDDLE EAST BY MIDDLE EAST, Interpretation, Conflict, Culture is their final project for a class called Microcinema. Taught by Amy Beste and Thomas Comerford, this course explores historical and contemporary aspects of small-scale exhibition in an international context. One of the main purposes of this class is to explore independent micro-cinema practices (e.g. microcinematic film tours and DIY exhibition) while covering the practical side of running microcinemas: students produce- program, promote and run their own public screening events. |