Catalogue > At random

The story of a film “Commission” starts in Georgia at some unknown point of time where a heroic, mythical female character has written a book which is being delivered by a courier (the artist herself) to three powerful women. The content of a book is hidden within an existing book – “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” written by Medieval Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli who dedicated the book to 12th century Queen Tamar who at the time brought prosperity and many social changes in the country.  Being used as a secret shell or a reference to female power from the past, the freshly embedded content of a book serves as manifesto to the women who haven’t been equally appreciated due to history books still being written from male perspective. The book offers alternative gaze to a world history which can exist only in utopian science-fiction film commissioned and executed by females only.   Shot in significant Soviet era architecture monuments (by that referring to Soviet time failed gender equality propaganda), using exaggerated costumes and scenes once associated with B class sci-fi movies, the film serves as humorous, yet rebellious propaganda material of female role and emerging power. 

Ieva Balode born in 1987, Riga, Latvia is an artist and film curator working with analog image. She has graduated Latvian Academy of Art and studied film and photography in Yrkeshögskolan Novia, Finland. In her artistic practice she is interested in human identity matters, which she explores through the language and philosophy of an image – both still and moving. Drawing inspiration from texts, archival materials and nature, the artist seeks to find the border between human consciousness and transcendence within it. Her interest in analog medium lies within the medium’s relation to nature and human perception. With her works she takes part in international exhibitions and film festivals presenting her work both in installation, as well as cinema and performance situation. As a curator she is a founding member of Baltic Analog Lab - artists collective providing a space and platform for analog film production, research and education. She is also a director of experimental film festival "Process" happening in Riga from year 2017.