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Filmed in a neglected expat housing complex in Hawalli, this out of context mirage disorients the familiarity or nostalgia of the space. The multicultural neighborhood vibrates with a multicultural working force who have consciously migrated from their diverse backgrounds to participate in the daily routine designated by a profiting developer. The tiling of the colonnade, as is the tiling of the dress, is reflective of the blurring of these expat cultures to camouflage within the existing- the existing which is not only foreign to them but foreign to the space - creating the out of context "Where am I?" phenomenon. These diverse cultures try to adapt to a "?" culture imposed by another country whilst struggling to identify between pre-imposed ethnic stereotypes and their traditional heritage. The freedom of the body is limited to the disproportion of the imposed cage, irritated within the larger cage of the structure.

Dana Aljouder is a designer, writer, and performance artist who graduated with a Bachelors Architecture from Pratt Institute in 2009. She received the Twinings Scholarship to research allegories of the Medici in Renaissance Art in Florence, and is currently an academic researcher for the Kuwait Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2014. She has also presented her furniture "The Chair" at Higgins Hall Gallery in Brooklyn in 2009 and "Kursi" at the Design Terminal in Budapest in 2013. She has worked with OOS on the winebox installations of the Albert Reichmuth showroom in Zurich. Aljouder has also collaborated with sound artist Bassem Mansour at the Beirut Art Center show "Exposures" and Altofest Performance Festival in Naples in 2012 and 2013.

Nous communiquons de plus en plus à travers notre propre façon de penser, sans essayer de comprendre la mentalité, le passé, les opinions politiques de 'l'autre'. "Untitled" : il est debout derrière la fenêtre, mettant en oeuvre tous ses sens. Le dialogue entre en scène.

Bassam Alkhouria a éudié à l'académie des beaux-arts de Damas en Syrie, où il a obtenu une licence de commnunication visuelle en 1993. Il a ensuite participé au programme de recherche et de pratique artistique au Dutch Art Institute à Enschede, Pays-Bas, de 2003 à 2005. Ses oeuvres ont été présentées aux occasions suivantes : mai 200- - "Here as the center of the world", Dutch Art Institute, NIASD, Damas, Syrie; mai/juin 2006 - 6ème édition des Journées de la photographie de Damas, Centre culturel français de Damas, Syrie; mars 2006 - Festival International d'Art Vidéo de Casablanca, Maroc; mai 2005 - Open Daizzz, Dutch Art Institute, Enschede, Pays-Bas; A Consumption of Justice, Centre d'art de la galerie d'art de la ville Diyarbakir, Turquie; avril 2005 - Centre d'art de Dyarbakir, Turquie; novembre 2004 - Crossing The Border Opstandingskerk, Enschede, Pays-Bas; avril 2004 - The Big Communication, Nanjing Art Academy, Chine; mars 2003 - Howden Festival, East Yorkshire, Angleterre; avril 2003 - Assyrian New Year Convention City Hall, Hengelo, Pays-Bas; mars 2002 - AL-Tajalliat ('Les visions'), Holy cross halls, Damas, Syrie; sept. 2000 - Darat Al Funun, la Maison der arts, Amman, Jordanie; mai 2000 - Semaine de la passion, Eglise arménienne, Damas, Syrie; mai 1997 - Semaine de la passion, The Round Theatre, Damas, Syrie; janvier 1994 - Many and Almanawia, Goethe-Institut, Damas, Syrie. Depuis son arrivée aux Pays-Bas en 2004, il s'intéresse au travail de la vidéo, dérivé de ses expériences quotidiennes.

“Life Chronicles of Dorothea Ïesj S.P.U.” is a film written and directed by Italian collective ALMARE. The film is set in a future society, in which an imaginary technology called ECHO detects on any surface sound waves imprinted over centuries, making them readable as an archaeological sound-find. “Life Chronicles” follows the voice diary entries of researcher Dorothea Ïesj. Her precarious financial situation drove her into sound-finds trafficking, especially in ancient erotic sounds. Thus began a smuggling network run with her friends and colleagues Juliette, Tancred and Miss Lowenhaupt. Thanks to them, Dorothea receives a scholarship funded by the military industry and the powerful fraternity S.P.U., to study antique warfare sounds. During her research, Dorothea extracts a sequence of cannon shots and Soviet naval sirens. This discovery arouses the interest of a range of misfit buyers who will stop at nothing to get hold of those «talking relics». Entirely filmed from movable type prints "Life Chronicles of Dorothea Ïesj S.P.U." is an imageless film which straddles the borders between radio drama, cinema and literature. The screenplay is written in a dystopian language that mixes ancient and contemporary Italian and openly alters excerpts from essays and novels.

Founded in Turin in 2017 by Amos Cappuccio, Giulia Mengozzi, Luca Morino and Gabriele Rendina Cattani, ALMARE is an artistic-curatorial collective dedicated to contemporary practices that use sound as an expressive medium. ALMARE works between artistic and curatorial practices, through writing, collective research, sound and music production, concert organisation, performance lectures, talks and exhibitions. In 2020, ALMARE inaugurated the production of its first feature film and audio-drama “Life Chronicles of Dorothea Ïesj S.P.U.”

The Majority Never Has Right on its Side is a film project about the Summerhill School in England, established in 1921 and still open. The school is known for its anti-authoritarian pedagogy built on the egalitarian principles of A.S. Neill, a socialist schoolmaster from Scotland often described as a “cynical utopian”. The film looks at the school today in relation to its “image” by using the school’s own film and video archive.

Emanuel Almborg’s work is often research-based and includes film, photography, installation and lectures and deals with themes around community and communication, utopian imagination, history and education. His work has recently been shown at Moderna Museet, Malmö and Elizabeth Foundation, New York. He finished the Whitney Independent Study program in New York, 2015 and is currently a PhD candidate at The Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, Sweden.

« Newsreel » peut être considéré comme une tentative de décrire et déconstruire l'esthétique des journaux télévisés en prenant comme point de départ un journal du Channel 4 suédois. Les informations quotidiennes jouent un grand rôle dans notre vie de tous les jours. Nous devenons de plus en plus dépendants et habitués à la qualité informative des nouveaux médias. Ils nous font prendre conscience du monde qui nous entoure et du débat mondial. En même temps, on pourrait soutenir que le journal télévisé repose souvent sur une structure narrative que l?on retrouve dans l'histoire du cinéma. « Newsreel » tente d?examiner si, et comment, le présentateur, le décor du studio, et la structure des informations se réfèrent à des règles narratologiques, et ce qui se passe si on les enfreint. S?il est vrai que l'objectif du journal est de nous informer de manière intelligible sur des questions et des événements importants et urgents, l?auteur voudrait repartir de ce qui rend les choses compréhensibles ainsi que poser la question plus large : qu?est-ce que l'intelligibilité ? En séparant les informations des procédés qui en communiquent le contenu, l?auteur veut créer la possibilité de prendre de la distance et de regarder le journal télévisé d?un ?il différent.

Emanuel almborg www.sakerna.se/emanuel Born in Stockholm, Sweden 1981, lives and works in London and Stockholm. Education: 2005 ? 2007 MFA, Fine art Goldsmiths College, London
 2001 - 2004 BA, Fine art Konstfack, Stockholm 
Selected Group Exhibitions and Solo Shows: 2008 MI2 B.I.G ProjectSpace, K44, Athens 2008 Loop international festival and fair for video art, Barcelona 2008 Videotheque Sala Rekalde, Bilbao 2008 Auction in a suitcase, 1:1 projects, Rome 2007 One must be so careful these days. Alma Enterprises, London 2007 MFA Degree show, Goldsmiths College, London 2007 Michael Poppyfield projects, Cal Arts, Los Angeles 2006 Goldsmiths MFA survey, Gallery white Box, New York 2006 Rag and Bone, Three Colts Gallery, London 2006 The Union, Collaborative project at Gallery Meals & SUVs, London 2005 Sakerna, magazine/installation, Stockholm ArtFair, Stockholm 2004 Been Here Too Long, Video, Gallery SAK, Stockholm 2004 The Second City, Video, Group show at Kulturhuset (Culture House) Stockholm 2003 Första Saken, Collaborative project at Gallery Konstfack, Stockholm 2002 Hyères Festival des arts de la Mode, France Other Projects: 2007 Artist Clothing at Tensta konsthall, photographer for project. Catalogue and poster. 2005 Beckmans Initiator/Tutor for workshop at Beckmans college Stockholm. 2004 Andra Saken Magazine (Distributed around the world) 2003 Första Saken Magazine (Distributed around the world) 2004 www.sakerna.se Website 2003-2006 Founder, Editor, Photographer, filmmaker, Sakerna Magazine and Project (www.sakerna.se)   Selected Bibliography:   2006 Sede, (Magazine) 2006 Influences, Die Gestalten Verlag (collection of art/desig book) 2005 Übersee, Die Gestalten Verlag (collection of art/design Book) 2002 Super, Die Gestalten Verlag (collection of art/design Book) 2001 Desire, Steidl (collection of photography Book) 
 



The Hippocratic oath is known as a golden ideal standard of ethics for professionals working in the field of medical science. The Hippocratic oath and its modern version is relevant as a division between the power of killing and medical treatment. An extract of oath is chosen emphasize a moral pledge, which starts with negative form promise – I will not. Repetitive militaristic movements and hunting simulation is used as an imperative of security forces, defense, discipline and power relations in biotechnology context.

Bon Alog (LT) is a media artist. She graduated BA in Photography and Media arts at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and BA in creative industries at Vilnius Gediminas technical university. Bon works with video, film, installations and photography.

The characteristics of our subconsciousness has its own model of reality. Human-being is trying to distinguish where simulation starts and ends. But the self-reflection of consciousness is full of absurdity itself... What is REAL? And what is REALLY happening?

2015 - present BA in Photography and Media art, Vilnius Academy of Arts (Lithuania) 2017.10 - 2018.02 Photography and Time-based arts, Bucharest national university of Arts (Romania) 2009 - 2013 BA in Creative industries, Vilnius Gediminas technical university (Lithuania) 2012 Spring semester - Multimedia, Tomas Bata university (Czech Republic)

Cities do not repeat themselves; they transmute. The city of Havana is portrayed in Terranova as a phantasmagorical, magical, and sensory space. An urban landscape created through reflections, glimpses of other cities, and visions of the future.

Director and photographer. Graduated in the Documentary Filmmaking at the lnternational School of Cinema and TV (ElCTV) in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. His documentary "The Farewell" (2015) had its international premiere at lDFA; it was awarded for Best Film in the Aciertos category of FlCUNAM and obtained the Full Frame President Award. "Duel" (2016) premiered at Cinema du Réel; it won the award for Best Short Film at the 32nd Mar del Plata Film Festival and Best Short Film at the 58th Popoli Festival. His feature film "The Project" (2017) had its world premiere at Visions du Réel, it won the FlPRESCl Award at the 60 Dok Leipzig. "Terranova" (2020), a medium-length film co-directed with Alejandro Pérez, won the Ammodo Tiger for Best Short Film at the Rotterdam Festival. His latest film, "Abissal" (2021), had its premiere at Visions du Réel, won the Audience Award at Documenta Madrid, 2021 and won the Golden Dove Dok Leipzig, 2021. Between 2017 and 2019, coordinated the Alternative Film Master's program organized by the EICTV. His feature-length documentary project "The Star" was selected for the Residency at the Academy of Cinema in Madrid during 2021.

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Through dancing, the film shows the evil of the dictator and the horror people endure under powerful political leaders. Saddam dances, Bush dances, so what's left for the Iraqi people except to join in.

Saif Alsaegh is a United States-based filmmaker from Baghdad. Much of Saif’s work deals with the contrast between the landscape of his youth in Baghdad growing up as part of the indigenous Chaldean minority in the nineties and early 2000s, and the U.S. landscape where he currently lives. His films have screened in festivals and venues including Cinéma du Réel, Kurzfilm Hamburg, Kassel Dokfest, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and The Gene Siskel Film Center. Alsaegh’s films are distributed by Video Data Bank.

Bitter with a Shy Taste of Sweetness contrasts the fragmented past of the filmmaker growing up in Baghdad with his surreal California present. Through poetic writing and jarring visuals, the film creates a calm and cruel sense of memory and landscape.

Saif Alsaegh is a United States-based filmmaker from Baghdad. Much of Saif’s work deals with the contrast between the landscape of his youth in Baghdad growing up as part of the Chaldean minority in the nineties and early 2000s, and the U.S. landscape where he currently lives. His films have screened in many festivals including Cinema du Reel, Kruzfilm Festival Hamburg, Kasseler Dokfest, Onion City Film Festival and in galleries and museums including the Wisconsin Triennial at MMoCA. He received his MFA in filmmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Long still frames, text, language, and sound are weaved together to unfold the narrative of an anonymous group who fill their time by measuring distance. Innocent measurements transition into political ones, drawing to an examination of how image and sound communicate history, tragedy, and the complication of Palestinian nationalism. The work explores an ultimate disenchantment with facts when the visual fails to communicate the tragic.

Born 27 august 1983 in Kuwait. Spent early childhood in Brittany France. Educated in the US, earning BFA & MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art & Design and was a guest student at the Malmö Art Academy, Lund University Sweden in 2004. Taught as an adjunct instructor at The University of Illinois at Chicago, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the American University in Cairo. Currently based in Beirut Lebanon as a recipient of the Fundación Marcelino Botín Visual Arts Grant 2009-2010 developing a series of new projects in photography, film, and text.

Through rituals of birth and death, the filmmaker and her family reconnect with their ancestral land in the Gobi Desert.

Udval Altangerel is a Mongolian filmmaker based between Ulaanbaatar and Los Angeles. In her work she explores the themes of personal and national histories, language, and (home)land. Her work has screened at Locarno Film Festival, Images Festival, Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, and Tacoma Film Festival, where she received Honorable Mention for Best Documentary Short Film. She was selected to participate in Locarno Open Doors and the Flaherty Film Seminar. Udval received her MFA in Film Directing from California Institute of the Arts.

Les chardons fleurissent au plus fort de l'hiver, les tympans des vaches éclatent, du lait empoisonné sort de leurs mamelles - dans un village de montagne isolé, le monde s'écroule. Les attaques intangibles de la nature frappent la ferme des Haberer en plein cœur, quand leur fille aînée tombe subitement malade. Au milieu des efforts enflammés pour interpréter ces événements mystérieux, la famille de paysans craint, de plus en plus désespérément, pour sa survie économique et pour sa propre survie.

Fabian Altenried est né en 1987. Réalisateur, producteur et auteur, il a étudié les beaux-arts à Düsseldorf (Allemagne), et la philosophie à Berlin (Allemagne). Il est le directeur général de Schuldenberg Films, Berlin (Allemagne). Il se concentre sur les films traitant de questions politiques, critiques et sociales qui recherchent une forme inhabituelle et artistique. Son travail se concentre sur des films ayant une approche politique, critique et sociale qui requièrent une forme artistique singulière.

1000 smiles per hour suive Esth, un saltimbanque androgyne, pendant un jour et une nuit a travers une ville côtier abandonée.

Fabian Altenried (*1987) is a director, writer and producer. He studied visual art at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf and philosophy in Berlin. Since 2013 he is part of the Berlin based independent production company Schuldenberg Films. His conceptual approach stems from his engagement with post-structuralism, identity and gender theories, performativity, theories of animality, and post-ideological leftism. Fabian has been an artist in residence of Gargonza Arts in 2013, a participant of Feature Expanded 2016 and Berlinale Talents 2017. His works have been supported by the FFA, werkleitz e.V., the Arts Foundation of North Rhine Westphalia, the Stiftung Kunstfonds, the Mondriaan Fonds et al. and have been shown at the Berlinale, the Sarajevo Film Festival, in Edinburgh, Rotterdam, and many other festivals and shows globally.

Omo Valley, Ethiopia: a region where tribes villages are reduced to human zoos to entertain the honeymooners tourism industry. International corporation have land-grabbed most of the indigenous territory for massive cotton field plantations. The Omo river is been recently closed by the biggest dam of Africa, leaving two hundred thousand tribe people facing food shortages and forced resettlement. With no land where to hunt, no river where to fish , tribes lives depends on the show they are able to perform daily in front of tourists. The fate of the region is written. The one of the tribes depends on their performative skills We went there and after meeting with one tribe we asked them to imagine their future in a cinematic epic way. This was basically the script. We weren’t that surprised when they came up with a futuristic techno pop idea of themselves. We formed a tribal girl band and began filming. We recorded with the tribe the music under the shadow of one of the few trees left standing by the plantation workers. We built a bar together and threw a party, remixing our own notion of partying with their celebratory rituals. It’s been a participative creative process that generated an unique original experience.

Alterazioni Video is a group of four artists founded in Milan in 2004 and now based in New York and Berlin.The members of the group are Paololuca Barbieri Marchi, Alberto Caffarelli, Andrea Masu and Giacomo Porfiri. Their work is been exhibited internationally in museum and art institutions like: the Disobedience Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin 2005, 52nd International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale 2007, Manifesta 7 Rovereto 2008, Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of UrbanismArchitecture 2009, 21x21, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Turin 2010, Maxxi Museum, Rome 2010, Performa 09 and 11 New York, MoMA PS1 Performance Dome New York 2012, Freak Out, Greene Naftali Gallery, New York 2013, PAC Milan 2014, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum Berlin 2015 and among others. In the last five years the collective has been producing a series of 10 docu-feature films called TurboFilm, TurboFilm is a filmic system or methodology, that relate to the ongoing, generationally marked reconfiguration of experience in daily life and social relations, in labor, the economy, and politics. It aims to raise questions on problematic topics through a transversal multi-format production that can circulate through different media platforms.

This documentary addresses the work of visual artist Carlos Nogueira – a multidisciplinary artist, and one of the leading contemporary Portuguese creators. It sheds light not only on his work, but also on his close relationship with his living and working space.

With a degree in filmmaking from the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, Lisbon, since 1993, Lui?s Alves de Matos has collaborated in different contemporary creative projects. He then went on to make a number of documentary films about Portuguese artists. In 2001 he founded Amatar Filmes, continuing with the independent production and directing of documentaries in the field of art, as well as experimental films.

A l?intérieur, l?air est plus dense.

Ricardo Alves Jr est né à Belo Horizonte, Brésil. Il est diplômé en tant que réalisateur de l?Universidad del Cine de Buenos Aires, Argentine. Son premier travail, le court métrage « Matériel Brute » reçoit plus de 10 récompenses dans plusieurs festivals internationaux. Il a aussi été sélectionné pour faire partie de « la zone visuelle » à la Biennale Visuelle Internationale d`art d?Israël et pour le festival VidéoBrésil. Son deuxième travail "Convite para jantar com camarada Stalin? (Invitation à dîner avec le camarade Stalin, 2007) a gagné le prix du meilleur court-métrage expérimental au Festival du Court-métrage International du Rio de Janeiro; le meilleur court-métrage, le meilleur directeur et le prix de la photographie du 40ème Festival de film de Brasilia, plus la mention spéciale « film de demain » au Festival International des Courts-métrages, à Belo Horizonte. Il a participé à plus de 30 festivals internationaux tels Oberhausen, Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Paris Cinéma, Munich et le Festival de film de Turin. En 2011 Ricardo réalise ses « Permanences » qui font partie de la sélection officielle à la Semaine de la Critique de Cannes.

One day in a man’s life. He is looking for his wife, he is looking for some answers, he is looking for life.

Ricardo Alves Jr (1982) was born in Belo Horizonte. With his films "Material Bruto" (2006), "Convite para Jantar com o Camarada Stalin" (2007), "Permanências" (2010) e “Tremor" (2013), participated in several national and international festivals such as: Semaine de la Critique du Festival de Cannes, Festival del film Locarno, Oberhausen, Rotterdam, Havana, Bafici-Buenos Aires, Festival de Brasília do Cinema Brasileiro, Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife, São Paulo International Short Film Festival, The Rio de Janeiro International Short Film Festival, FestCurtasBH, Vídeo Zone - International Video Art Biennial in Israel, VideoBrasil - Festival de Arte Eletrônica. Being exhibited at the Museu Centre Pompidou, in Paris, and the Museo Reina Sofia, in Madrid by the Encontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid. In 2013 had a retrospective of his films at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris (Cinéma de poche : La Collection brésilienne) and at the Cine Esquema Novo- Expandido in Porto Alegre. He won the award for Best Director of short film at the editions 40º and 46º of the Festival de Brasília do Cinema Brasileiro. As editor, edit the long “Pinta”, by Jorge Alencar, and “Avanti Popolo”, by Michael Wahrmann, debut in the Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma, where received the Award of Best Film of the Premio CinemaXXI. In the theater directed “Discurso do Coração Infartado” a solo of Silvana Stein; contemplated with the Award Miryan Muniz da Funarte, seasons performing in the cities of Belo Horizonte, São Paulo e Brasília. In 2014 co-directed with Grace Passô, “Sarabanda" performed by Mostra Bergman- Instante de Eternidade of the Fundação Clovis Salgado. Currently working on the post-production of “Elon Rabin não Acredita na Morte” contemplated by Hubert Bals Fund Award of script development; besides participating the laboratories Buenos Aires Lab (BAL), FIDlab-Plateforme Internationale de Soutien à la Coproduction and New Cinema Network – Rome Film Festival’s International Project Workshop.

Deux soeurs d`un certain âge attendent un mystérieux invité. Humour absurde et situations décalées au rendez-vous d`un dîner bien particulier.

Ricardo Alves Júnior was borned in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Graduated in Film Direction, at Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His first work, the short movie "Material Bruto" (Raw material), received over 10 awards at festivals in Bolivia, Brazil and Portugal, besides being selected to the "Video Zone" at International Video Art Biennial of Israel and VideoBrasil. "Convite para jantar com camarada Stalin" (2007), Ricardo's second work, won the award for Best Experimental Short Film (International Short Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro); best short film in 16mm, best direction and photography in the 40th Film Festival of Brasilia, and won the special mention "Film of Tomorrow" in the International Festival of Short Films, in Belo Horizonte. Participated in 20 international film festivals such as Oberhausen Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Karloy Vary Film Festival, Paris Cinema, Munich International School of Film and Torino Film Festival.

The project Treviso Centrale stems from a desire to represent and interpret the territory of Treviso in the north-east of Italy. A territory that deals with the consequences of a heavy exploitation of the land for the sake of industrialization and economic wealth but also that deals with the relationship between the human presence and the man-altered landscape. In Treviso Centrale the subjects try to engage with this wounded landscape, non-places, with the attempt to re-appropriate them. This engagement becomes forced, unnatural, because of the impossibility to relate with places that have lost their social and inner function. Treviso Centrale becomes then a journey into these contrasts, into this everyday struggle between economic and social space.

Michele Amaglio (b.1993) is an Italian photographer based in Brighton (UK) currently studying at the University of Brighton, BA (Hons) Photography at his third year. From the early workshops with the Italian photographer Marco Zanta, Michele Amaglio grew an interest on architectural photography and urban landscape starting questioning the contrasts between past and presence within the landscape. His work is focused on the relationship between human being and space, between landscape and existentialism. Across different projects his attempt to represent the social space questions the alienation from the every-day life. Among the main influences of his work, Henri Lefebvre, Albert Camus and Jean Beaudrillard.

"Je vois tout", dit-elle, comme si c'était une malédiction. Soleil éclatant, ciel bleu sans nuages. La mer est calme, encadrée par un bout de balustrade. Des voix qui bourdonnent. Un moment paisible si ce n'est que la mer est debout, verticale, comme une cascade. Une ruée d'images, virevoltantes, sens dessus dessous, cahotantes. Des gens dans le bateau, dans l'eau, des cris, des gilets de sauvetage, des sifflets de détresse. Orange fluo, formes géométriques découpées par le soleil. Il n'y a plus d'horizon, ni de ciel, plus de haut ou de bas, seulement la profondeur et rien à quoi se raccrocher. Même les mouvements d'Eme s'arrêtent, se contractant dans le présent brutal. Elle filme et parle. À lui, à elle-même, à nous, peut-être. Des jambes flottant dans un pantalon de survêtement, des jeans, serrés les uns contre les autres. Un chemisier à motif papillons, on dirait que leurs ailes battent dans l'eau. La ceinture serpentine d'un manteau, un gobelet en plastique froissé, un paquet de cigarettes. Allez tous vous faire foutre! Elle parle, elle rage, et elle filme pour vaincre la fatigue, le froid, le fait que les secours n’arrivent pas. Pour ne pas mourir, pour qu'il reste simplement quelque chose.

Amel Alzakout est née en 1988 en Syrie et habite à Leipzig (Allemagne). Elle est artiste et réalisatrice. De 2010 à 2013, elle a étudié le journalisme à l'Université du Caire (Égypte). En 2017, elle a participé, avec d'autres artistes, à l'installation vidéo "Trust Us", dans le cadre du 3e Herbstsalon au Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin (Allemagne). De 2017 à 2018, elle a étudié les arts à la Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee, Berlin (Allemagne). Actuellement, elle étudie les arts médiatiques à la HGB – Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig (Allemagne). En 2018, elle a remporté, avec son coréalisateur Khaled Abdulwahed, le Film Prize for International Cooperation Germany/Arab World, de la Robert Bosch Stiftung, Stuttgart (Allemagne), pour son long métrage "Purple Sea", produit par pong film, Berlin (Allemagne). Il s’agit de sa première réalisation. Khaled Abdulwahed est né en 1975 en Syrie, et habite maintenant à Leipzig (Allemagne). Il est artiste, photographe et réalisateur. De 1996 à 2000, il a étudié les beaux-arts et le design graphique à la Adham Ismail Art School, Damas (Syrie), et à la Frederick University, Nicosie (Chypre). De 2002 à 2008, il a exposé ses œuvres d'art au Moyen-Orient et en Europe. De 2011 à 2013, il a dirigé et produit des œuvres d'art vidéo, qui ont été projetées dans de nombreux espaces artistiques, festivals, universités et chaînes de télévision du monde entier. En 2015, il a été invité dans la section Talents de la Berlinale, Berlin (Allemagne). En 2018, son court métrage "Backyard" a été présenté en première mondiale au FID Marseille (France), et y a remporté le Prix du CNAP - Centre national des arts plastiques.

Imaginez une seconde: vous faites des courses dans un magasin IKEA et tout à coup on vous propose de participer à un film. C'est ce qui est arrivé à plus d'une centaine de clients dans le magasin IKEA de Wilrijk en Belgique, où Ulf était en tournage pendant deux semaines pour réaliser Welcome Home. Dans des décors tout faits - la chambre d'étudiant, le salon rustique, l'intérieur design - les clients avaient la possibilité d'improviser comme ils le voulaient à partir de situations données. Ces acteurs en devenir ont tous fait preuve d'une grande volonté. On y voit des personnes qui dorment, qui cuisinent, qui sont assis... Welcome Home est une compilation de scènes humoristiques basées sur la confrontation entre ce qui est artificiel et authentique, et entre l'Homme et le commerce. IKEA sert de décor clairement reconnaissable pour ces scènes et fait apparaître toutes sortes d'associations et de réflexions. Cependant on ne trouve aucune prise de position explicite sur la consommation et la mondialisation de la part d'Ulf. Pour lui, ce qui est important c'est de laisser les gens jouer et de nous permettre les observer.

Ulf Aminde (né en 1969 en Allemagne) vit à Berlin et travaille comme artiste vidéo. Son travail a été présenté au Centre Culturel de Suisse (Paris), à Friedericianum (Kassel) et à Kagami (Paris), pour n'en citer que quelques uns. En 2004, une exposition intitulée Survival of the fittest lui a été consacrée à Wolfsburg, et en 2006, ses oeuvres ont été présentées à la Biennale de Berlin. Ulf s'intéresse principalement aux mécanismes socio-émotionnels de la société capitaliste. Il ne s'agit pas simplement d'images enregistrées. Au contraire il cherche à faire participer des gens victimes des stigmates sociaux, des personnes qui ne peuvent pas ou qui ne pourront jamais prendre part à l'Etat-providence. Ulf ne condamne personne et ne formule aucune plainte mais son travail montre ces personnes d'une telle manière que la perception que l'on a habituellement d'eux est brisée, ou du moins devient plus nuancée.

TRUST US 2017, Video Installation Very often journalists are contacting us to write a story about `refugees` in the context of higher education, their living in Berlin, or simply because they`re looking for some “traumatized” characters for their stories. We usually reject these requests. But this time we received an award of a multinational company and it came with a sum that we urgently needed in order to continue our programme. This time they wanted to produce a video, a one shot sequence. They seemed nice, but their task was to produce emotional images featuring the bodies of the refugee students, underscored by the voice of the white professor contextualising their movements and giving meaning to the frames. We told them this is not how it`s going to work. No one wanted to provide their ́bodies ́ to fill those frames of narration. They said: „TRUST US, it will look good“ Finally we agreed: THEY WOULD FILM US while WE WOULD FILM THEM. We decided to edit the material WE shot and combine it with texts spoken by us, relating to the week long discussions we`ve shared. The whole thing became an installation shown at 3. Herbstsalon, Maxim Gorki Theater.

The *foundationClass was established at weißensee academy of art berlin in 2016. Its aim is to provide equal access to formal art education for people who have fled or migrated to Germany. It tries to create a social space where everyone’s resources are acknowledged and validated and where new formats of skill sharing and knowledge transfer can be developed. Ultimately, the *foundationClass wants to question the norms, conventions, and the habitus of art institutions and the industry as a whole. Situated within the institution but rejecting to embody it, the *foundationClass scrutinizes the art academy as a powerful site of knowledge production. Refusing to be integrated into an economy of difference, we aim to formulate strategies that position us outside of the grid of representation. Together we want to find answers to the question of how an art school of the future would look like if it genuinely recognised migration as an essential societal factor. As a collective the *foundationClass contributed TRUST US as a multichannel video installation to the 3. Berliner Herbstsalon, a festival for contemporary art by the Maxim Gorki Theater.