17.11. – 15.12
In collaboration with Tromsø Kunstforening, throughout the winter we will screen a selection of films from the Artists’ Film International network in our kiosk-kino in Havneterminal, Tromsø, around the theme Care.
The Box
Sena Başöz, 2020 (TR)
5 min (Selected by Istanbul Modern)
Başöz explores gestures of care and compassion in The Box as hands gently stroke a woman’s hair revealing symbolic objects hidden in her locks. Hair is dead tissue extending from our living body, so it acts as a space in-between life and death just like soil. In the video, the hair becomes an uncanny, liminal landscape.
Sena Başöz (b. 1980, İzmir, Turkey) is an artist and filmmaker living and working in Istanbul. She received her BA in Economics from Boğaziçi University (2002) and MFA from Bard College Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts in Film and Video (2010). Her recent solo exhibitions include Ars Oblivionis, Lotsremark Projekte, Basel (2020);Hold on Let go, MO-NO-HA Seongsu, Seoul (2020) and On Lightness, DEPO Istanbul(2018).
Her artwork focuses on healing processes after cases of trauma evolving out of the importance of care, the ways nature self-regenerates creating a balance in the long run and the organism’s capacity to repair itself.
Mag-uuma (Farmer)
Kiri Dalena, 2014 (PH)
2 mins (selected by MCAD Manilla)
Mag-uuma (Farmer) features a young female dissenter from Mindanao whose performance during a peasant demonstration caught the attention of filmmaker and visual artist Kiri Dalena. After agreeing to document the song she sang during the rally, Dalena filmed the young woman in the middle of a rice field while farmers submerged in knee-deep paddies continued to plant. However, the young woman performed another song, compelling those around her to take pause and listen. This song of protest which she sings in the video is an old ballad learned from her mother, its verses speaking of a history of exploitation and poverty, circumstances that continue to cast a shadow on their community and personal lives.
Kiri Dalena (b. 1975, Philippines) is a Filipino visual artist and filmmaker whose body of work confronts the underlying social conflicts in contemporary Philippine society. Articulating certain realities of injustice and inequality, Dalena’s deep understanding of the mass struggle greatly influences her artistic practice, depicting forms and histories of civil resistance. Her works assert the importance of protest and activism against state persecution. She participated in Berlin Biennale 11: The Crack Begins Within, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, ExRotaprint (2020); JIWA: Jakarta Biennale 2017, Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Jakarta (2017); and Singapore Biennale: If the World Changed, Singapore Art Museum (2013).
Artists’ Film International: CARE
In 2021, after lockdowns were becoming the norm, the AFI network selected care as its theme. As the virus rippled out across the globe, the importance of care in all of its facets became tangible, a social and environmental necessity visible at the infrastructural, economic, personal and physiological levels. At our present moment, we see care being exhibited at the most difficult times, as acts of resistance, as solidarity.
Artists’ Film International is a partnership of 18 international art centres that celebrates moving-image. Every year, each organisation selects a film from an artist connected to their region, based on a collectively agreed theme.
We will show 3 different selections of films consecutively at Kinobox until 12.01.2024. A fourth selection will screen at TKF: Hvilhaug 25.11-17.12. The screening of these programmes tie into TKF’s recent move to the former Hvilhaug Sykehjem (care home) where we will focus on care and the community.
Artists’ Film International (AFI) is a partnership of 18 international organisations that celebrates moving image: Bag Factory, Johannesburg; Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas, USA; Belgrade Culture Centre, Belgrade; Center for Contemporary Art Afghanistan (CCAA); Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; Fundacion Proa, Buenos Aires; GAMeC, Bergamo; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Istanbul Modern, Istanbul; MMAG Foundation, Amman; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; NBK, Berlin; Para Site, Hong Kong; Project 88, Mumbai; Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromsø; Whitechapel Gallery, London
We are grateful for funding from Tromsø Kommune and Norsk Kulturrådet to build the kiosk-kino and support from Tromsø Havn/Havneterminalen in housing it. This project would not have been possible without the help and support of Tromsø Kunstforening and Polar Film Lab. The AFI programme is funded through Tromsø Kommune, Troms og Finnmark Fylke and Kultur og Likestillings Departementet.