The Seminar leader
Jörg Heiser is an art critic, curator, and musician. He is Director of the Institute for Art in Context, Dean and a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of the Arts in Berlin. For twenty years, he worked as an editor for frieze magazine. Since 1997 he writes reviews and essays for Süddeutsche Zeitung, as well as for Die Republik, Art Agenda, etc. His books include All of a Sudden. Things that Matter in Contemporary Art (2008), Double Lives in Art and Pop Music (2019) and recently published Freiheit ist kein Bild (Textem Verlag/edition Uhlenhorst Hamburg, 2021). Since 2004 he has curated numerous group exhibitions including Romantic Conceptualism (2007-8, Kunsthalle Nuremberg and Bawag Foundation Vienna, catalogue), and he was co-curator of the Busan Biennale 2018 in South Korea. The second album of the band La Stampa, a member of which he is, has been released 2018 by Vinyl Factory, London. |
Photo: Heidi Specker
|
The Seminar participants
Che R. Applewhaite is a Trinidadian-British writer, filmmaker and cultural worker. I hold internationalist and interdisciplinary commitments to politics of time, specificity, relation and cultural process. My début short film, A New England Document, received its world premiere in 2020 at Sheffield Doc/Fest, and was an official selection of the New York African Film Festival, Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival and Prismatic Ground Experimental Documentary Festival. I have written for publications including Harvard Magazine, Open City Documentary Festival and Millennium Film Journal and worked for artist-filmmakers Christopher Harris and Ja’Tovia Gary, at the Harvard-Mindich Program for Engaged Scholarship and the Harvard Art Museums. One project put on hold by the pandemic, “IN LOVING MEMORY,” narrates the experiential archives of a Black mother whose father and son breathe once more through the young athletes she coaches at Normandy High School in St. Louis, Missouri. It received support from Pinwheel Productions, Harvard-Mindich Program for Engaged Scholarship and The Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. My next project, a series of filmic works tentatively titled, “(Un)making Us”, seeks to reckon with the British Empire’s colonial presence in Trinidad & Tobago. Through filmed public performances and epistolary exchange, it will explore how a queer Black Caribbean diaspora negotiate the process of decriminalizing homosexuality in both law and society, showing how our experiences recursively reframe history and community on the islands and within Britain. Website: https://cheapplewhaite.com/ Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user104817667 Filmography: 2020 - A New England Document 2020 – Say Her Name | Kimya Foust, Kimya’s House (in collaboration with Black Lives Matter Boston) |
Anto Astudillo (they/them) is an experimental filmmaker, curator and performance artist from Santiago, Chile, living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Rooted in physical theater, Anto explores dynamic interconnections between experimental narrative, poetic documentary filmmaking, performance art and the intricacies of queer identity, searching for a hybrid and non-binary cinema. As a graduate student at Emerson College in the Film and Media Art (MFA) program, they co-directed the New England Graduate Media Symposium for three consecutive years. Anto has taught 16mm film production, experimental film, dance film and performance at Emerson College, Keene State College and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Anto is one of the founding members of the AgX Film Collective, taking the role of organizing screenings to promote alternative practices in filmmaking. Anto is a 2017 Flaherty Seminar Ford Foundation Curatorial Fellow. Their recent work has been screened in several venues, including Mills Gallery at Boston Center for the Arts, Echo Park Film Center, Montreal Underground Film Festival, Artifact Small Format Film Festival, Crater-Lab, Zumzeig CineCooperativa, Hot Bits Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, Craig Baldwin’s film series Other Cinema in San Francisco, DocMontevideo and Corrient.es Film Series. Currently, Anto curates film screenings as an independent programmer and is a Program Coordinator at The Flaherty. In January, 2020 Anto has curated an experimental film screening about Chile’s recent social uprising "The People’s Revolt" that screened at Anthology Film Archive. The screening has been shown virtually due to the pandemic in many online theaters including Maysles Documentary Cinema. Website: www.antoastudillo.com |
Bill Basquin is an American artist and writer. He has created a body of work that takes ecological systems as one of its prominent themes. Basquin is currently Writer-in-Residence at the Mesa Refuge and has recently begun what he hopes will be a long-term relationship with an apple orchard. Basquin has shown films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY; the Experiments in Cinema Festival in Albuquerque, NM; and Feminale in Koln, Germany. Basquin’s feature-length film From Inside of Here (2020), based on field study in the Mexican Wolf Repopulation Area in New Mexico, has yet to have its premiere, due to Covid-19. Website: https://www.BillBasquin.info. |
Elena Baumeister is a film researcher and curator based in Berlin whose work encompasses feminist cinema and film culture and examines the intersections of cinema and video art practices. She is the author of the recently published study ‘Kino, Kunst, Feminismen. Kuratorische Strategien seit 1970’ (Büchner 2020). Since her M.A. graduation in film curatorship and gender studies from Goethe-University, Frankfurt a. Main, she has worked at several institutions including Kinothek Asta Nielsen and Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art. Additionally, she has been co-organizing the independent public screening series Film + Reading. She holds a position as a curatorial trainee at Filmmuseum Potsdam (Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf), where her research currently focuses on the representation of abortion in the DEFA film heritage. |
Kathrin Heinrich (GER*1989) is an art historian and critic based in Vienna, Austria. She studied art history and comparative literature at the University of Vienna and graduated with a master’s thesis titled “The Footnote as a Performative Strategy: Parergonality in Roni Horn’s Still Water (The River Thames, for Example)”. She is currently a pre-doc researcher at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where she is preparing a doctoral thesis dealing with contemporary art, performativity, and historiography. Her research interests focus on questions of performativity and performance, the relationship between text and image, as well as art and literature in a broader context, and art criticism. Her writing has been published in newspapers and magazines like Der Standard, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Arts of the Working Class, Springerin, or PW-Magazine. In 2018, she received the AICA Austria Prize for Young Art Criticism. |
Denisa Jašová is a PhD student at Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia. She studied Archival Science and Film Studies at Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic and Audiovisual Studies at Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. Since her Bachelor studies she has been focused on the history of Czechoslovak non-professional and especially amateur cinema. Her recent paper Slovak Documentary Cinema of the 1970s & ‘80s from the Viewpoint of the Possibilities and Boundaries of Using the Terms – Professional, Amateur, Family and Experimental Cinema is focused on comparison of the usage of the terminology of different geographical and historical contexts abroad with a local Czechoslovak tradition in Slovak Socialist Republic in 70s and 80s. The paper is in the extended form a part of her PhD thesis in progress named Media transitions and genre hybridization in the production of non-fiction TV film in Slovakia during 70s and 80s. She is interested in researching local specifics of the understanding and practising amateur, experimental and family movies both home and abroad and questioning their limits and borders. She did a one-month internship in Camera Ottica of University of Udine, Italy in autumn 2020, a specialized laboratory for restoration and digitization of archival films, especially short film formats. At the university, she is teaching lectures from history of the world cinema (Italian cinema, genre film) and methodological subjects. Besides Czechoslovak amateur cinema, her research interests includes documentary film of Mezzogiorno, Italian women directors, Nordic Noir and the work of Susan Sontag. She was a participant at FIPRESCI Warsaw Critics Project 2019 at Warsaw Film Festival. She also works as a researchist for TV documentaries and as a librarian in Central European House of Photography in Bratislava. |
Mathieu Janssen (1984) is a film curator based in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He studied Sociology at the Radboud University and focused during and after his studies on journalism. From 2007 to 2015 he worked as a freelance writer, and as programmer of public debates on social issues at the cultural institution/cinema LUX. Born from his love for films, he co-founded Deep End Film in 2013 - a collective that screens films in different contexts. Varying from exhibitions to film walking routes to screenings combined with lectures and talks. Some more recent projects: In 2018-2019 he programmed the series D.R.E.A.M. (Data Rules Everything Around Me) with short films and discussions on the future of living in cities for RAUM in Utrecht, and in 2020 he curated the exhibition ‘Craving for Narrative’, with short visual works on the power of narratives for Oddstream. In 2018 Mathieu started his work at Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen. As the head of the competition section he is part of most selection committees and responsible for the competitive sections. At the festival he also curates programs for the theme focus, country focus and other out of competition programs. Both as freelancer and as a programmer at Go Short, Mathieu collaborates with many other film festivals as well. In the last year he was for example working with Vienna Shorts and Busan International Short Film Festival as pre-selector, a jury member at Festival de Nouveau Cinéma in Montréal and curated programmes for Short Waves Festival and This Is Short. |
Jules Leaño is a Filipino-Scottish filmmaker and visual anthropologist based in Berlin. Taking inspiration from both avant-garde and ethnographic film practices, her work explores the relationship between media portrayals and lived consequences, as well as the power dynamics within non-fiction storytelling. In particular, much of her work focuses on topics relating to migration, language and lived experience. She is co-founder of Alternative Fictions, a visual anthropology collective that works within the intersections of media, research and activism. |
Geli Mademli is a researcher, writer, and programmer, working on a dissertation on crisis discourse in different manifestations of Greek film heritage (Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, the University of Amsterdam, asca.nl). She is the Publications Coordinator of the Thessaloniki Film Festival (filmfestival.gr), where she also works as a programming assistant, writer, desk editor, and translator; she is also a member of the programming team of Syros International Film Festival (syrosfilmfestival.org). She has curated film programs for venues and institutions like LIMA (lima.nl) and ΟΤ301 (ot301.nl) in the Netherlands, and the Cinemateca Brasileira (Mostra de Cinema Grego) in Brazil. She is an editorial board member of the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies, and a founding member of the editorial initiative EG – figure of speech. Articles of hers have been published in international journals and collective volumes, whereas she is currently co-editing a special issue for the European Journal of English Studies (EJES, Routledge), to be published in 2022. She is involved in the development of an audiovisual archival project for the preservation of collective memory at the Aegean, as well as in the Whole Life Academy of HKW, where she co-leads a workshop on the genealogy of the desktop. More about her writitngs here : https://independent.academia.edu/GeliMademli |
Johanna Markert is an independent curator based in Berlin. Together with Lukas Ludwig and Florian Model, she co-directs the nonprofit organisation anorak. Currently, she co-organises a weekly ‘viewing group’ that explores artists’ moving image work under the theme Seeing Is Believing together with artist and filmmaker Katharina Jabs and historian Franziska Benkel, and collaborates with artist Ana Wild on a performance piece for which mystic, political activist and philosopher Simone Weil’s idea of ‘decreation’ serves as critical a starting point. She was curatorial fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2018-2019, and co-curator of Techne, a production platform by experimental theatre Rampe and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, 2016-2018. Website: www.anorakanorak.com |
Len Murusalu is an Estonian artist. Her interdisciplinary work uses moving image, video performance, photography, sound, installation and painting to explore questions around the interpretation of history, memory, identity and the perception of time. Len graduated the Master's studies in the Contemporary Art Practice: Moving Image pathway at the Royal College of Art in London. She has studied at the Estonian Academy of Arts and graduated from the University of East London in 2009. In addition to exhibiting her work since 2005, Len has contributed to several documentaries as a screenwriter. Currently, she is developing her first feature-length film Third Choice as a director. The pilot for Third Choice, a short documentary titled Inherited Memories, was pre-screened at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and had an official premiere at the Artists' Film programme of the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in November 2019. In 2018 Len established a production company ChronoLens dedicated to artists' film and moving image, where she is currently producing a collaborative artists' film project, Time Quartet, for gallery and cinema contexts. Len has also organised several artists' film workshops in cooperation with the Kai Art Center and the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn and is one of the curators of the artists' film programme for the 2021 Tallinn Photomonth biennial. In 2020, Len founded AmiLab – a non-profit in Tallinn, Estonia, dedicated to promoting and developing artists' film and expanded cinema, with a particular focus on sound- and video-installation. Website: www.lenmurusalu.com |
Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi is a Berlin- and London-based artist whose practice mutates in and out of sculpture, installation, moving image and interdisciplinary research. Her work explores imaginations of freedom at the intersection of film-making and film theory, critical refugee studies and postcolonial studies, personal/prosthetic memory and individual/collective histories. Nguyen-Chi studied Fine Arts at Städelschule (2010-2015) and Film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017-2019). Currently, she is pursuing PhD research in Film at CREAM, the University of Westminster. She has previously exhibited and screened her work at Asia-Art-Activism, London; Atletika, Vilnius; Centro di Musica Contemporanea di Milano, Milan; Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago; Haus, Vienna; Kunstverein Nürnberg, Nürnberg; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham; Portikus, Frankfurt; Sàn Art, Saigon; Site Galleries, Chicago; University of Bonn, Bonn, among other venues. Forthcoming exhibitions and residencies include: Whitechapel Gallery, London and Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna. Works: https://passe-avant.net/features/a-situation-which-resists-completion-thuy-han-nguyen-chi |
Felicity Palma is an image-based artist and curator whose research considers human mobility and stasis, place, and myth-making through the intersections of documentary, performance, and experimental time-based practices. She is predominantly concerned with the social construction and fluidity of borders, tourism as performance, notions of belonging, embodiment, alienation, and the senses. Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Felicity is currently based in Durham, NC where she is the Post-MFA Teaching Fellow in Cinematic Arts at Duke University. She holds a BA in Language Studies from UC Santa Cruz, an MA in European and Mediterranean Studies from New York University and an MFA in Experimental & Documentary Art from Duke University. Her work has screened internationally at Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Kinodot, Split Video Art Festival, Bideodromo, Harkat 16mm, Traverse Vidéo, ICDOCS, among others. Felicity curates screenings of experimental, independent, and transnational films for Sideyard Cinema, a microcinema project she founded in Durham, North Carolina. Her newest project is a short form experimental film entitled "Surface Tension" which examines consumption and desire through mediated landscapes. Website: https://www.felicitypalma.com Recent work: Medusa and The Abyss (2019) https://vimeo.com/327474602 |
Photo: Sarah Bodri
|
Daniella Sanader is a writer and reader based in Toronto, where she is currently working as an independent editor. Her current research explores frameworks for citation in performance, film/video and installation-based practices, with an emphasis on moments of misreading and misunderstanding. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Canadian Art, Artforum.com, C Magazine, BlackFlash, Little Joe, Border Crossings, Peripheral Review, esse, and others. Her texts have also been published by a number of galleries and artist-run spaces across Canada and Europe. She holds an MA in Art History and Gender Studies from McGill University. She has curated projects for Vtape, Oakville Galleries, Gallery TPW, and others. She has held art writing and research residencies at the Banff Centre, Mercer Union (Toronto), and Rupert (Vilnius, forthcoming). Website: https://desanader.com/ |
Fred Schmidt-Arenales is an artist, filmmaker, and organizer. His works attempt to bring awareness to unconscious processes on the individual and group level. He has presented performances and experimental video and audio works internationally, at venues including Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst und Medien, Graz; Links Hall and Ballroom Projects, Chicago; The Darling Foundry, Montreal; Pieter Performance Space and NAVEL, Los Angeles; LightBox and The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; The Brick Theatre, Abrons Arts Center, and Dixon Place, New York; and Kunsthalle, Vienna. Fred is a recipient of a grant from the Graham Foundation for an upcoming film project, Committee of Six, exploring the history of urban renewal in Chicago. Fred has also taught and organized workshops, conferences, and classes on collaborative strategies and group dynamics at various arts organizations and schools including the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago; and Abrons Arts Center, New York. Links: http://fredschmidt-arenales.net/ http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/6083-committee-of-six |
Sara Stern is an interdisciplinary artist from New York City. Stern approaches her projects as an expanded form of ventriloquism. She makes architecture, historical objects, and photographs speak and perform across video installation, sculpture, printmaking, and performance. Her recent projects prod histories of urban development with animacy and speculative fiction. Stern received her BA from Harvard University and her MFA from Columbia University. She has exhibited and screened her work in the US and internationally, at venues including SculptureCenter, NY; Anthology Film Archives, NY; the Museum of the Moving Image, NY; The Jewish Museum, NY; MuseumsQuartier, Vienna; and the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore. Her awards include the 2018 Rema Hort Mann Emerging Artist Grant, the 2017-18 Fountainhead Fellowship at VCU Sculpture + Extended Media, and the 2018-2019 Visual Artist Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. Website: http://www.sarastern.net/ |