De Imagerie

FRI 02.08.2019
Het Bos, Ankerrui 5-7, Antwerpen
Food 18h - Films 20h30

ARKADI ZAIDES - ‘Capture Practice’ (video installation, 18’, loop) 
[Opening expo]

+ Kamal Aljafari - ‘Recollection’ (2015, 70’)

Expo: free entrance.
Film screening on the opening night: 5 euros.

WWW
arkadizaides.com

Info

In 2013, Arkadi Zaides requested access to the video archives of B'Tselem the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights In The Occupied Territories. Among other things, the archives contain thousands of hours of footage documented by Palestinian volunteers within the framework of the organization's "Camera Project". Zaides chose to focus on the Israelis captured on screen, on their bodies and the way they respond to various situations in the West Bank. The results of his confrontation with these materials are presented in two works: 'Capture Practice' a video installation, and 'Archive' a stage performance.

The video installation 'Capture Practice' comprises two synchronized video channels broadcasting simultaneously in a loop on two walls that are of human height, thus creating an intimate architectural space. On the right wall, Zaides is filmed within a closed and windowless studio, and on the left, there is a series of clips from the archives. With his gaze continuously facing the left screen, Zaides extracts the movements of the documented subjects, and through the medium of his body ties together the occurrences on both screens. Using a neverending kinetic practice.

Zaides wishes to examine the somatic influence of the occupation on the bodies of those administering it, while raising questions about his own involvement in the act. Although the Palestinian side remains behind the camera, the volunteers' movements, voices, and perspectives are present, and they dictate the viewing perspective.

+ Kamal Aljafari - ‘Recollection’ (2015, 70’)

WWW
www.sabzian.be/film/recollection

Info

“Recollection utilizes footage from Israeli films as raw material for exploring, reconstructing, and sharing the inaccessible history of his hometown Jaffa: “For many years, I have been collecting Israeli fiction films shot in Jaffa as early as 1960. These are films in which Palestinians are disappeared, yet also exist at the edge of frames, visible in traces. Preserved also is a city; alive again in moving images, its gradual destruction over the decades chronicled film by film. From the footage of dozens of films I have excavated a whole community and recreated the city. Though out-of-focus, half-glimpsed, I have recognized childhood friends, old people I used to say good evening to as a boy; my uncle. I erased the actors, I photographed the backgrounds and the edges; and made the passersby the main characters of this film. In my film, I find my way from the sea, like in a dream. I walk everywhere, sometimes hesitant and sometimes lost. I wander through the city; I wander through the memories. I film everything I encounter because I know it no longer exists. I return to a lost time.”

• Synopsis from the Courtisane program 2017