Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

Larissa Sansour

NATION ESTATE

Vidéo expérimentale | hdcam | couleur | 9:0 | 0, Danemark | 2012

Short Content Nation Estate is a 9-minute sci-fi short offering a clinically dystopian, yet humorous approach to the deadlock in the Middle East. The film explores a vertical solution to Palestinian statehood: One colossal skyscraper housing the entire Palestinian population ? now finally living the high life. Long Content In Sansour`s film, Palestinians have their state in the form of a single skyscraper: the Nation Estate. One colossal high-rise houses the entire Palestinian population ? now finally living the high life. With a glossy mixture of computer generated imagery, live actors and an arabesque electronica soundtrack, Nation Estate explores a vertical solution to Palestinian statehood. Each city has its own floor: Jerusalem on the third floor, Ramallah on the fourth floor, Sansour?s native Bethlehem on the fifth and so on. Intercity trips previously marred by checkpoints are now made by elevator. Aiming for a sense of belonging, the lobby of each floor reenacts iconic squares and landmarks. The story follows the female lead in a futuristic folklore suit returning home from a trip abroad and making her way through the lobby of the monstrous building ? sponsored and sanctioned by the international community. Having passed the security checks, she takes the elevator to the Bethlehem floor and crosses Manger Square and Church of the Nativity on her way to her apartment where she prepares a plate of sci-fi tabouleh.

Born in Jerusalem, Sansour studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, London and New York. Her work is interdisciplinary, immersed in the current political dialogue and utilises video art, photography, experimental documentary, the book form and the internet. Despite its stylised imagery, sterile futurism and high production value, sci-fi tends to allow for a specific kind of almost nostalgia framing of the topic at hand, even the situation in the Middle East. Sci-fi almost invariably carries within it a sense of retro, ideas of the future tend to appear standard and cliché at the same time as they come across as visionary. Sansour borrows heavily from the language of film and pop culture. By approximating the nature, reality and complexity of life in Palestine and the Middle East to visual forms normally associated with entertainment and televised pastime, her grandiose and often humorous schemes clash with the gravity expected from works commenting on the region. References and details ranging from sci-fi and spaghetti westerns to horror films converge with Middle East politics and social issues to create intricate parallel universes in which a new value system can be decoded. Sansour`s work features in galleries, museums, film festivals and art publications worldwide. Recent solo shows include exhibitions at Kulturhuset in Stockholm, Galerie La B.A.N.K in Paris, DEPO in Istanbul and Jack the Pelican in New York. She has participated in the biennials in Istanbul, Busan and Liverpool. Her work has appeared at the Third Guangzhou Triennial in China, LOOP in Seoul, South Korea, Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and PhotoCairo4 in Egypt. Sansour`s graphic novel The Novel of Nonel and Vovel - a collaboration with Oreet Ashery - first appeared in Venice Biennale bookshops and was since launched at the Tate Modern, UK, the Brooklyn Museum, USA, and Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre, Denmark. Her short film A Space Exodus was nominated in the Best Short category at the Dubai International Film Festival. Exhibitions in 2012 include the Centre for Photography in Copenhagen, Galerie Anne de Villepoix in Paris and Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney. She lives and works in London and Copenhagen.