Screening: aCinema Summer Screening Series *IN PERSON*

In person at Woodland Pattern

Join us for the first-ever aCinema Summer Screening Series, featuring a weekend of six programs curated by Takahiro Suzuki and Janelle VanderKelen! We are thrilled to welcome them back to the gallery for this special, condensed presentation, which comprises aCinema’s Season 8. 

Screenings will take place at 7 pm on Friday; 3 pm, 5 pm, and 7 pm on Saturday; and 5 pm and 7 pm on Sunday.

The first two screenings will feature 17 works selected from the aDifferent Program open call held this spring, which received nearly 200 submissions from around the globe. The weekend will then move into four additional curated screenings including works by Asako Ujita, Ayla Dmyterko, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Panu Johansson, Victoria Verseau, and more!

A specially designed commemorative program produced by Woodland Pattern will be available for purchase.

FULL PROGRAM DETAILS:

FRI @ 7 PM SAT @ 3 PM SAT @ 5 PM SAT @ 7 PM SUN @ 5 PM SUN @ 7 PM

Saturday, July 20th | 7 PM:

Deciduous Symphysis (TRT approx 54 min) 

Game of Hope, Claire Davies, 14 min 37 sec 

SYNOPSIS: Working through a not knowing of NFTs and their digital materiality, a 3D scan of a Snickers wrapper becomes an obsession through which to explore value systems, hope and class structures. Through an internal monologue we follow the considerations around making an NFT, revealing a personal conflict between the structures of capitalism, whilst desiring the luxuries of modern life.  

At the centre of this work is a recurring interest in exploring processes of uncertainty as we adapt to changes in technology, society, and principles around value, looking, and exchange.  Through these questions I employ lived experiences to explore multiple truths, questioning how  I can love a digital object but also be conflicted by the medium’s sudden foray into the world of the financial elite. 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Claire Davies (1987, Nottingham, UK) is a moving image artist living in Nottingham, UK.  Through modes of stillness, observation and deconstruction, Claire works with photogrammetry,  3D animation, video, stop motion and installation to create moving image works questioning desire, value systems and power structures through her lived experience with developing technology. Claire is an Associate Lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University and Leeds Arts  University. Recent exhibitions and film festival screenings include; Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Germany; Sheffield International Documentary Festival; Alchemy Film  Festival, Scotland; TCBTV, Somerset House, London; Blush, Random Acts commission for Little  Dot Productions and Channel 4 Television and; The Valley of Lost Things, Two Queens, Leicester. 

Still Life with Woman, Tea and Letter, Tess Martin, 2 min 14 sec

SYNOPSIS: A photograph is a window into the past, but sometimes, the border between past and present is not entirely clear. This stop-motion animation invites us to think about our relationship to time, by portraying one woman caught in the middle. 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Tess Martin is a filmmaker/visual artist based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her work is informed by hand made animation techniques and their potential to explore the human condition. Persistent themes are our place in nature, our relationship to the past, and how memory and perception inform identity. Her practice results in short films, interactive installations, and paintings/prints. Recent works include the ORBIT phonotrope short film and installation (2019) and the paper cut-out film Ginevra (2017). www.tessmartinart.com 

Scene #17: Athena and Victoria on the stone beach, Victoria Versau, 6 min 47 sec

SYNOPSIS: The video work Scene #17: Athena and Victoria on the stone beach (2019) by artist and filmmaker Victoria Verseau, grapples with the complexities of being a trans girl filmmaker, endeavoring to convey the sometimes somber reality of transgender life. The work explores this as well as the relationship between two transgirls, Victoria herself and Athena, with two different points of views on the matter. 

Athena expresses her dissatisfaction with the prevailing narrative surrounding trans women,  which tends to be centered on tragedy. Athena perceives that the film she and Victoria are creating depicts yet another tragic narrative about trans women. This sentiment resonates with discussions within the queer community, advocating for more positive portrayals and the presence of strong role models. However, Victoria finds it troubling that she feels constrained from sharing her authentic experiences. Shouldn't Victoria, as a trans woman who has experienced the loss of one of her closest trans friends to suicide, have the freedom to narrate her story as it truly is? 

[Director's Commentary]

This narrative presents a novel perspective seldom explored or depicted in cinema. The dynamic of two trans girls with differing viewpoints engaging in dialogue about this issue. I’ve never heard or seen two trans girls with different opinions discussing this concern. 

Thus far, the discourse has predominantly favored the need for positive narratives, yet it seems there's a reluctance to acknowledge an alternative viewpoint even when it comes from a trans woman telling her own story. I've faced significant resistance when attempting to tell the narrative of my closest trans friend's passing. As a trans woman, I've even found myself distancing from the queer community due to the resistance I've encountered. I perceive this as a concern; while it's crucial to have an abundance of positive narratives, we mustn't neglect the significance of embracing both brightness and darkness. Positive narratives are undoubtedly necessary, but we cannot afford to ignore the artistic processing of traumas that trans girls need to undertake in order to move forward. It strikes me as odd that while such narratives find acceptance in other mediums like literature and politics, they seem to encounter resistance in film. 

Moreover, the existing darker narratives often stem from the perspective of cisgender individuals, unlike in this instance, where a trans woman seeks to tell her story from her own viewpoint. Doesn't it significantly alter the narrative if it's told by a trans woman rather than a cis person, or should she adhere to the requests of the queer community? 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Victoria Verseau (b. 1988) is a Swedish artist and filmmaker. In her works she explores themes such as body, memory, identity and social structures. There are also references to poetry and philosophy in her art. The works are often based on personal experiences of being trans and a new woman. Based on her own story, she examines larger existential questions; who we are,  how we exist and who we want to be. Verseau explores ideas of transition and remembrance,  as well as the ambivalence of telling personal stories while maintaining privacy. 

Victoria has a broad practice that includes sculpture, large-scale installations, performance, videoworks, feature and short films, fiction and documentary. She lives and works in Stockholm where she earned a master’s degree at the Royal Institute of Art in 2020.

Victoria is currently working on two feature films, Boundaries and Trans Memoria (formerly  Meril), the latter won The Hiventy Post Production Prize at Cannes Docs, Cannes Filmfestival  2023 and will premiere in 2024. She has had several solo exhibitions in Sweden and abroad.  Her films have been shown internationally, most recently A Ghost’s Gaze (2021) and Exercise  One (2016). In 2017, she was the first trans person to receive the Anna Award for her work in film, a grant awarded by Women in Film & Television and UN Women Sweden. Her work  Approaching a Ghost (2021) was part of the Artists’ Film International 2021 and was shown at several prestigious art institutions around the world. 

I am still learning, Ryan J Fleet, 2 min 03 sec 

SYNOPSIS: In this two-minute portrait, we meet Jimmy Hawkins, a dedicated dance instructor at the Buffalo Center of Arts. Jimmy shares how dance has been a transformative force in his life, helping him overcome negativity and challenges growing up. With a passion for dance and a commitment to fostering self-expression, Jimmy encourages his students to embrace their individuality through movement. 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Ryan Fleet is continuously striving to capture the ordinary in cinematic ways. His work seeks to blur the lines between narrative and documentary, creating pieces that resonate with truth and beauty. With a technical approach that underscores his creative endeavors, Ryan finds joy in the intricate process that leads to compelling creative outcomes. His dedication to authenticity and his attention to detail define his unique artistic vision. 

Love, Anna Hawkins, 7 min 42 sec  

SYNOPSIS: Love explores the shapeshifting nature of language on the internet. In the video, images extracted from the Instagram platform–all found under #love–are transformed and integrated with original footage shot by the artist. #love is the most used hashtag on Instagram and currently, there are over 2 billion posts that are tagged in this way. If each of the 2 billion posts using #love provides a new context for the word, it becomes nearly impossible to determine any fixed meaning for the term. Connecting seemingly disparate images, Love tries to understand and link all of the possible associations of a given word at a single moment in time through narrative. A voiceless narrator—a loose personification of the Instagram platform or perhaps even the internet itself— addresses the viewer in the form of a love letter. They express an understanding of love and describe a relationship based around the diverse imagery and sometimes illogical associations created by #love. 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Anna Hawkins is an artist who works primarily in moving image and installation with an interest in the ways that images, gestures and language are circulated and transformed online and the impacts of technology on the intimate spheres of daily life. Her works have recently been exhibited and screened at transmediale (Berlin, DE), CCCB (Center of Contemporary Culture of  Barcelona (Barcelona, ES), the Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival (Istanbul, TR),  Dazibao (Montréal, CA), Images Festival (Toronto, CA), and The Art Gallery of Alberta  (Edmonton, CA). In 2022, she was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s preeminent award for Contemporary Art. She is currently an Associate Professor in Studio Arts at MacEwan (Edmonton, CA). In 2022, she was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s preeminent award for Contemporary Art. She is currently an Associate Professor in Studio Arts at MacEwan  University on Treaty 6 Territory ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan), Edmonton, Canada. 

Host or Parasite: Boiling Body, Elena Chemerska & Ivana  Mirchevska, 8 min 18 sec 

SYNOPSIS: Host or Parasite: Boiling Body is an installation/video work that explores the intertwining of environmental degradation and the impact of neoliberal capitalism on the individual.  

At a time when planetary depletion aligns with the draining of vitality of neoliberal capitalism,  we look into the consequences of bodily exhaustion. Neutralized to the point of numbness,  we oscillate between existing tendencies rather than encouraging the emergence of new ones on a planetary scale. Amidst the ebb and flow of specific bodily and somatic capacities, where do we look for zones of safety?  

Looking into the contemporary choreographers of care and their concealment of the idea of bodies as repositories of diverse capacities, we delve into an auto-fictional world. Here, in the metabolic entanglement between host and parasite, relations of hospitality, hostility,  conviviality and unequal transactions are rehearsed.  

Through the refusal to perform according to pre-given orientations, uttered messages, subterraneous noise and flickering surfaces aim to reshape care not as an individualistic anthropocentric approach, but as a pathway of vibrant interdependency.  

Collaborators:  

Sound: Jovan Bliznakovski  

3D Animation: Maja Cibreva  

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Elena Chemerska (1991) Skopje, North Macedonia. Currently based between Berlin and Skopje. 

Broadly said, my artistic practice is embedded in exploring the relationships between aesthetics,  materiality, and politics. By employing different artistic strategies and approaches to image making, my research focuses on the ways in which we create the basis for the future in relation to memory and the way we attempt to grasp history in its image. I approach human experience  by framing it as a subject through the relationship of what Paolo Virno defines as "memory as  the mark of the past pressed into our experience of the present", with what he defines as "hope  as a horizon of possibility." 

I formulate my work through moving images, sound, writing, painting, drawing, and collaborations. Combining these elements, I tend to build elaborate installations which are intended to function like spatial and temporal landscapes; different speculative spaces that converge in the body experiencing the work. As a strategy, I often collaborate with allies from across the spectrum of disciplines with the aim to confront and defy conditions of precarity. 

In our dynamic world of rapid cultural and technological change, whose wounded body is rebelling against all the human mastering and its assumptions of progress, we have reached a point of uncertainty about whether human life on this planet as we know it can continue to exist.  Our bodies are fighting against the velocity of data which rapidly dissolves categories we once deemed solid. At the same time, the human experience of being in the world is now visual and visualized to an unprecedented degree. We are becoming more aware of our deep involvement and constant exchange with the environment that we depend upon, as well as another human,  non-human, and more-than-human bodies. Drawing from this perspective, I often refer to the modernist tradition- negotiating with the double binding of modernity, I position my practice in critical discourse with it. Methodologically, my work is directed towards materializing multiple vanishing points, different degrees, and units of measure for intensities, rhythms, and directions. 

Ivana Mirchevska (b.1992, living and working in Skopje) is a visual artist and researcher whose artistic practice is rooted in time-based media, visual anthropology and painting. Ivana’s research is drawn to topics that come from the intersection between the technologies of vision,  the spatial configuration of the gaze and the body. Engaging with the cultural biases and potentials of the body and its vision, her approach embraces the fragility and vulnerability of the body and looks and looks at its capacity for creating alliances that do not homogenize but affirm differences. 

Ivana holds a BFA in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Skopje (2015) and MFA in Visual  Arts from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, Italy (2018/2019). 

Her most recent works and artistic engagements include: artist book “At an angle of 45 degrees”  published by Studio Private Print, “Notes From Surfacing: At an Angle of 45 Degrees” at Studio  Private Print (2021), “Medium Crevice: Alternative Set of Footholds for Climbing” at Gallery Ko Ra, Skopje (2021), including collaborative projects such as: Swimming in the Sticky Lake at  YCC Gallery, Skopje (2021) and Thresholds of Nobody in Particular YCC Gallery, Skopje (2020)  Her work has been shown in the context of Supernova Regeneration Festival, Denver, USA  (2021); Dislocations, Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities (2021); Youth  Biennial Belgrade, Serbia (2021); Fuori Visioni Festival 6| Tra muro e confine-Atto I e II,  Piacenza, Italy (2020-2021); The Biennial of Young Artists, MOCA- Skopje (2021) and others. 

Throughout her practice and research, Ivana often collaborates with different allies, from a variety of disciplines and practices. She is involved in on-going collaborations with Elena  Chemerska, Ishjan Twin, Natasha Nedelkova, Amir Karahasan and Kula Collective among others. 

Notes on Free Improvisation, Emily Barresi, 11 min 52 sec

SYNOPSIS: When I moved to New London, I started hanging around and collaborating with musicians in town. Real noise freaks. It was at a warehouse show that I experienced Luke’s improvisational set for the first time. Synapses began firing in my brain at such a speed, I lost track of who and why I was. Images and phrases surfaced from the last months and years of my life at random. I  white-knuckle gripped my knees. There was no pattern recognition, no reason or logic to contend with. You simply hung onto a note, a thought, as it passed you by. I saw them play a  couple more times and each set, I was more floored than the last. This piece came about in an effort to share that cacophony of sound and experience.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Emily Barresi is a photographer and experimental filmmaker from Connecticut. Drawing from her family’s theatrical and motion-picture background, she perceives even the most monotonous human experience as a vibrant mess. Through collaborations with community members and friends, she delves into magical realism on a local scale, aiming to uncover shared aspects of dreams, fears, and survival. Her photographic work has been exhibited both nationally and  internationally and she has created on-site video installations in several group exhibitions at spaces including UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles, and David Zwirner Gallery, New York. Emily holds an M.F.A from Yale University and currently works as a cinematographer on independent projects throughout the Northeast. Artist website: www.emilybarresi.com Social: @embarresi

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