On & For

Filmmakers, collectives and artists whose work engage with the production and distribution of artists’ moving image share strategies, tools and imaginaries within collective filmmaking and production practices. w/ Beursschouwburg, elephy & Harlan Levey Projects.

11:00-13:00 TALKING COLLECTIVELY @Harlan Levey Projects 1080 (free > reserve your spot)
Conceived by elephy, the first part of the event takes place in the frame of the public program running parallel to their exhibition Laying Bricks at Harlan Levey Projects. A variety of collectives and production platforms are invited to share their know-how on starting up and staying together, self-organisation and co-creation.

14:00-17:00 READING COLLECTIVELY @Beursschouwburg (free / lunch 6 euro > reserve your spot)
At lunchtime, we move to Beursschouwburg to celebrate the publication launch of On & For Production and Distribution (2018-21). The publication marks the end of a three-year project initiated by Auguste Orts with Kaunas International Film Festival (LT), LUX/LUX Scotland (UK), and Nordland School of Arts and Film (NO). The book features a collection of texts that reflect on different stages, contexts and languages in artists’ moving images. In reading collectively, the book – its mapping of the field, the strategies it proposes and the concerns that it raises – serves as a tool and a pretext for discussion. A free digital pdf download of the publication is available here or you can pick one up at the reception of Beursschouwburg.

19:30 WATCHING COLLECTIVELY @Beursschouwburg (9 / 6 /4,5 euros > get a ticket)

A selection of films drawing out possible configurations of collectivity on and around the screen.

Ballpark Collective, Short Straw, 2020, 20’27”
In English. Participating Artists: Aimée Neat, Sun Park, Susanne Dietz, Max Leach and Sarah Lewis.

Ballpark Collective experiment with inter relational filmmaking practices, moving image installation, and different ways to reach audiences. Drawing on The Surrealists’ game ‘Exquisite Cadaver’ as a metaphor for collaboration and interpretation, Short Straw experiments with interweaving the artists’ diverse creative-process and form.The film is made from five sections, each made by one of the artists. Through the random act of “pulling sticks”, a chronological order was determined. No discussion took place between the artists outside of this ritual of passing work from one to the next. The artists only seeing the work ahead of theirs. When the process was complete, all pieces were chronologically joined to create a whole.

Enar de Dios Rodríguez, Vestiges (an archipelago), 2020, 20’
In English, Spanish, with English subtitles

After water, sand is the natural material most extracted by humans. Our society is built on it (quite literally) and contrary to what is thought, it is also a limited material whose extraction is causing irreparable damages in nature. This video essay in four chapters is part of Vestiges, an interdisciplinary project that investigates the insatiable demand of sand as well as its socio-political and environmental consequences.

Collectif Faire Part, Aire, Work in Progress, 14’
In French, with English subtitles

In 2019, filmmakers Paul Shemisi and Nizar Saleh travelled from Kinshasa to Frankfurt for a screening of their new film. During a stopover in Angola, they were stopped at the airport because the airline didn’t trust their papers. When Paul and Nizar thought they would be led to a hotel, where they would stay until their return flight home, they found themselves in an illegal detention centre. In this short film, the testimony from the filmmakers provides an insight into the impossibility for Congolese artists to travel trouble-free and in safety, while the images show breathtaking views from an airplane window.

Erika Roux and Anni Puolakka (WET Film), Vanitas, 2021, 17’39”
In English, with English subtitles

Vanitas portrays four, unemployed characters in the future: a singer, a what-naut, a gamer and an office building. Revolving around the characters’ observations, it wonders about the transient and often meaningless seeming nature of human activity. The video uses methods inspired from science fiction to discuss the relation of human lives to technology and the disappearance or redefinition of work, as well as timeless matters such as loneliness, alienation and mortality.