Screening Program:
Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close

SALT Beyoğlu, Walk-in Cinema

The claim concerning sweeping secularisation is one of many platitudes used in attempts to explain contemporary times. In no way does it reflect the complexity of our reality, where the revival of fundamentalism is intertwined with New Age spiritualism or the search for a new universalism by post-secular philosophers. The common denominator is dissent from the complete disenchantment of the world and eradication of radical hope, which lies at the foundation of the majority of contemporary acts of faith. This hope can acquire different forms: a calling for ultimate justice, a plea for personal redemption, or questioning the limits of human life and cognition. All these postulate the conviction that we all secretly believe in something, automatically going beyond the classic paradigm of the Enlightenment project.

Running in parallel with the exhibition Rainbow in the Dark, this screening program is organized in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and is curated by Dorota Michalska.

Free admission

PROGRAM

November 15 and 16, 12.00

Inferno (2013)
Yael Bartana
18 minutes
Without dialogue

Yael Bartana films the inauguration of a grand temple, its destruction, and the worship of its remains. The starting point is the construction of a replica of Solomon’s Temple in São Paulo, by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, with stones imported from Israel as intended to bring part of the “holy land” to the city of São Paulo - a way of recuperating faith in the life of big cities characterized by their secularity.


November 15-16, 12.20

Al Araba Al Madfuna II (2013)
Wael Shawky
33 minutes
Arabic; English subtitles

This re-telling of Egyptian novelist Mohamed Mustagab’s parables, Horsemen Adore Perfume and The Offering, uses children as the instrument for words spoken by adults in classical Arabic. The piece shows the transformation of historical fact into narrative through its exchange within social contexts. Wael Shawky’s work is a method of retelling history; selecting details, changing perspectives and reassessing how we view, hear and read the past.


November 15-16, 12.55

Future Days (2013)
Agnieszka Polska
29 minutes
English without subtitles

This amusing and melancholic video combines elements of animation with images shot on the Swedish island of Gotland. Agnieszka Polska created a fictitious “afterworld for artists” where artists from different generations meet after death. In an ironic way, she exposes the limitations of human knowledge, and encounters in the symbolic, phantasmal landscape are followed by discussions exploring the notion of human desire for metaphysics and the urge to experience the sublime.


November 15-16, 13.30

Them (2007)
Artur Żmijewski
26 minutes
Polish; English subtitles

Artur Żmijewski organized a workshop to which he invited four groups representing divergent ideological mindsets: members of nationalist Młodzież Wszechpolska (All-Polish Youth), women strongly attached to the Catholic Church, young Polish Jews and leftist activists. Participants of the workshop were given the task of negotiating the shape of their common space without words, and in so doing unveiled how ideological controversy arose and posed questions about the possibility of coexistence of bipolar opposites in the social space.


November 15-16, 14.00

So-Called Waves and Other Phenomena of the Mind (2003-2004)
Paweł Althamer, Artur Żmijewski
86 minutes
Polish; English subtitles

This series of films recorded with fellow artist Artur Żmijewski, recall Paweł Althamer’s student-era work. The films document Althamer exploring various ways of non-rational cognition, which he deems to be a means of broadening human perception, using mind-altering substances (LSD, peyote, hashish, the truth serum) or hypnosis.


November 15-16, 15.30

A Pilgrimage (2003)
Paweł Althamer, Artur Żmijewski
30 minutes
Polish; English subtitles

In November 2003, Paweł Althamer and Artur Żmijewski took part in a traditional pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Mixing with the devout, the two artists visit and film landmark sites of Christian and Jewish martyrdom.


November 15-16, 16.00

The Message Project (2010)
Fayçal Baghriche
185 minutes
Arabic and English; English subtitles

This video edits together two versions of the The Message, the 1977 film by Moustapha Akkad relating the history of Islam. One film includes a cast of stars from Arab cinema while the other uses Hollywood actors. Synthesizing these two films in a single edit that follows the script’s structure, Fayçal Baghriche creates a dialogue between the Arab and American actors, revealing the categorization of cultural products depending on their target audience.

Rainbow in the Dark is realized with the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and curated by Sebastian Cichocki and Galit Eilat in collaboration with SALT.

The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland, as part of the cultural program celebrating the 600th anniversary of Polish-Turkish diplomatic relations throughout 2014.

Dofinansowano ze środków Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Wydarzenie realizowane w ramach programu kulturalnego obchodów 600-lecia polsko-tureckich stosunków dyplomatycznych w 2014 roku.

turkiye.culture.pl