Event overview
Screenings followed by a discussion with the artists
Maddi Barber, Urpean Lurra (Land Underwater), 2019, 50 mins
In 2003, the Itoiz reservoir flooded seven villages and three nature reserves in the Pyrenees. Solidari@s with Itoiz documented the fight against its construction on video. Today, activists, former inhabitants of the area and the director of the film still dream about the region’s past and the land that remains underwater. A militant and dreamlike film that transports us into the collective mourning of a land engulfed by water.
Sonia Levy, We Marry You, O Sea, as a Sign of True and Perpetual Dominion, 2023, 18 min 12 secs
We Marry You, O Sea, as a Sign of True and Perpetual Dominion engages with Venice and its Lagoon "from below", bringing attention to the city's submerged, life-giving, and altered bio-geomorphological processes rather than on its often-recounted political and military histories. Underwater filmmaking exposes a fractured and troubled environment that complicates mainstream historical narratives that start above the water's surface. The film draws its title from the utterances spoken during The Marriage of the Sea, a ritual observed until the Venetian Republic's decline. In this ceremony, the Doge, the Republic's patriarch, would wed the lagoon by casting a golden ring into the water, declaring dominance over the sea. The artist reframes Venice's enduring relationship with its permeating waters, reflecting on its ongoing legacies of quests for mastery over watery environments.
Imani Jacqueline Brown, What Remains at the Ends of the Earth? 2022, 11 mins 29 secs
What remains at the ends of the earth? investigates the intersecting histories of land inhabited by Black Louisianans, and the vast network of fossil fuel infrastructure that overlays these sites today. What remains at the ends of the earth? aims to bring visibility to the ways fossil fuel production inherits the racist spatial, economic, and environmental logics imposed by slavery. The video animation pictures animated GIS lines and points representing pipelines, canals, and wells, as well as environmentally threatened coastal marshes with sacred groves of trees planted by enslaved people to memorialize their dead. In the face of ecological devastation, these trees are now a bulwark against soil erosion caused by the activities of petrochemical companies in this fragile ecosystem. The prints chart oil and gas pipelines. Rendered by Brown, these networks come to resemble twinkling stars in a night sky—a reminder of the constellation of extractive values that guide modern consumption. By mapping these intertwining legacies, What remains at the ends of the earth? suggests a way forward through landscape reintegration and economic reparations.
Programmed by Ifor Duncan
Hosted by the Department of Visual Cultures, Centre for Research Architecture, and the Critical Ecologies Research Stream
Screenings followed by a discussion with the artists
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Mar 2024 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
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