The Art Encounters Biennial 2023 presents a selection of art films that follow the narrative threads of an edition entitled My Rhino is Not a Myth.
Four special screening evenings will occur on four separate days: May 25, June 8 & 15, and July 6, from 6:00 p.m., at Cinema Victoria.
Thursday, May 25, between 18:00-20:00, you are invited to watch short films made by young filmmakers and established artists, with titles, for instance, from the international circuit of the Venice Biennale (In Vitro, 2019).
The short films from the first screening night of the Art Encounters Biennial are part of the Carriers of New Seeds narrative thread, introducing fictions about the ecological and social realities we face today.
The screenings will be followed by a Q&A session with Marius Stan and some of the film directors in Timișoara: Selin Davasse and MarksMara.
Below is the selection of the first episode in the series of screenings held under the auspices of Art Encounters:
1. Selin Davasse, Homo Economicus (2021), 6'47''
When Diogenes, the 4th century BC philosopher, was asked why he begged in front of a statue, he replied that he did so to get used to being refused. Similarly, Selin Davasse recounts in song the struggles of a young performance artist in an empty room displaying classical sculptures from Berlin's Altes Museum.
2. MarksMara, Group Chat (2020), 7'58''
Reflecting on our isolation in the digital age and inspired by their research in microbiology, MarksMara uses microscopic images as a starting point for a wide range of content, from poetry to science fiction, from tweets to critical theory.
3. Mihai Grecu, Under the Centipede Sun (2010), 8'
Mihai Grecu transforms the landscape of the Altiplano region of Chile into the main character of his film, where the forms of life we know seem to be absent, in some isolation similar to the mass extinctions of our days.
4. Adrian Ganea, Dance of the Butterflies (2022), 12'56''
A speculative work about generative algorithms and digital simulations that tend to search for meaning in the environment through the senses they possess. Based on excerpts from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein, in which Frankenstein's monster discovers his senses, these digital creatures build their world through pattern recognition and predictive simulations.
5. Larissa Sansour, In Vitro (2019), 28'
Larissa Sansour's In Vitro (2019) – a 28-minute sci-fi film co-written and co-directed by Søren Lind – takes place in a cavernous concrete bunker deep beneath the ancient city of Bethlehem 30 years after a devastating ecological disaster. In the safety of the bunker, two female scientists are conversing about the end of the world against the backdrop of an orchard of Palestinian plants grown from seeds saved from before the catastrophe.
We look forward to welcoming you on May 25 for an evening of exciting films and discussions!