Aphasia by Jelena Jureša is a feature length film essay dealing with politics of memory and oblivion inscribed in social and historical contexts. Croatian premiere: MSU, Gorgona hall, Wednesday, 30. 10. 2019. at 19:00 p.m.
In three chapters Aphasia detects a thread of positions of power, racism, injustice and violence from Belgian colonialism, Austrian anti-Semitism and atrocities in Bosnia during the Yugoslavian wars. The film is exploring how collective crimes keep being repeated and reflects social and political constellations, unfolding constructions behind nation states and national identities.
As a medical term, aphasia refers to the inability to speak or to find the right words. Departing from „colonial aphasia“ to „political aphasia“ the works deals with (im)possibilities or representation of historical trauma and violence and preconditions for state-sponsored violence. When law and politics fail to bring justice and facilitate collective healing, the artistic practices and media of photography, film, or television can break the silence, and may lead the way to justice. From Belgian colonialism of the first chapter, Austrian race experiments and heimat films in the second, the third chapter brigns to life a well known photograph. Although it is never unveiled on the film, we recognize it described and interpreted in two mirroring dopplegangers, a monologue by journalist Barbara Matejčić and choreography of violence performed by Ivana Jozić.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with the artist, Barbara Matejčić, Vesna Teršelič and Branka Benčić.
Jelena Jureša: Aphasia (2019), 80 min
Film/video installation
Spoken English, Croatian
Script, directing, editing: Jelena Jureša
Text: Jelena Jureša, Asa Mendelsohn, Barbara Matejčić
Narrator, Chapter I: Andrew Wise
DoP, Chapter III: Sébastien Cros
Monologue, Chapter III: Barbara Matejčić
Choreography, Performance, Chapter III: Ivana Jozić
Music: Alen Sinkauz, Nenad Sinkauz
Sound design: Slobodan Bajić, Miroslav Piškulić
VFX: Dejan Solajić
Produced by ARGOS centre for audiovisual arts.
Co-produced by Contour Biennial 9, KASK School of Arts/HOGENT, Zagreb Youth Theatre (ZKM)
with support by VAF Flanders Audiovisual Fund
Artists' Cinema is a project by:
MSU Museum of Contemporary Art and Apoteka – Space for Contemporary Art.
Curated by Branka Benčić Organized by Tihomir Milovac
ARTISTS’ CINEMA is a screening program at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb established in 2012, aimed at introducing contemporary artists and their cinematic works, created at the meeting point of contemporary art and cinema, of film and visual arts. The program presents recent works of film/video outside the context of production of entertainment and spectacle as well as introducing historical perspectives and developments. It is a meeting place connecting artists, filmmakers, curators, and critics with the audience; in order to contribute to an active internationalization of the art scene engaged in the media of moving images.
Organized with support of City of Zagreb and HAVC Croatian Audiovisual Centre
