The videos are presented during Berlin Art Week on the facade of SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, the cinema experiment by bi’bak at Haus der Statistik.
UBUNDU
Director: Jelena Jureša, 2019, 17 Min.
INFERNO
Director: Yael Bartana, 2013, 22 Min.
ŞIYAN
Director: Fatoş Irwen, 2012, 10 Min. (shortened version)
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Art in Dark Times sets out to discuss some of the acute issues afflicting our contemporary societies such as misogyny, racism and historical revisionism. The video programme is a continuation of the discursive programme that has already started earlier this year at bi’bak and brings together three video works. By referring to the story of the okapi brought from Belgian colonies to Antwerp Zoo in 1919, Jelena Jureša’s Ubundu (2019) questions the reckless exploitation of nature by modern societies and the cultural projections that accompany this arrogance. Yael Bartana’s Inferno (2013) traces the ideas behind the construction project of the third temple of Solomon in Sao Paolo and the inherent self-destructiveness of this neo-conservative mindset. Fatoş Irwen’s Şiryan (2012) exposes the increasing pressures placed on the freedom of artistic expression, but also alludes to the perseverance in dealing with such inflictions.
