curated by A- - -Z
4 screenings part of PAF Olomouc Festival in Czech Republic, December 2024
Feat. Babak Ahteshamipour, Babeworld x utopian_realism, Jordan Baseman, Mel Brimfield, JJ Chan x Sarah Howe, Nina Davies, Elise Guillaume, Sophie Hoyle, Maria Joranko, Billy Klotsa, utopian_realism, Martha Rosler, Peter Spanjer, Kialy Tihngang, Joshua Woolford
Act 1 will explore inner and digital spaces, Act 2 will expand into the surreal and poetic world, Act 3 imposes a narrative and activist view, Act 4 expands into eerie, aesthetic and absurd realms.
Chronicles | Act 1
A—Z presents 4 screenings of recent and older works responding to this year’s festival edition, Diaries.
Act 1 explores inner and digital spaces, with Post-coded Thoughts on the Never-upcoming Foreshadowed Li(f)e, looking at SIMS avatars living their lives peacefully as human beings. This is followed by Nina Davies’, Haters Will Say I’m Real, a nine minute film whose narration takes the form of a podcast conversation between two unseen speakers. As the conversation unfolds, with an actor describing a film role to an interviewer, it becomes clear that the show is set in a fictional near future, as they discuss changes in the legal system driven by automation, technological development and the resulting ethical consequences. Eventual Horizon by Elise Guillaume, was filmed during a journey to the Arctic, and it has a theme of personal and environmental grief. This act ends with Excoriate by Sophie Hoyle, in which they explore embodied experiences of chronic illness and the attempts to reclaim bodily autonomy from biomedical institutions, while considering different processes of healing
Chronicles | Act 2
A—Z presents 4 screenings of recent and older works responding to this year’s festival edition, Diaries.
Act 2 brings us to the surreal and poetic world. Kialy Tihngang, Neyinka and the Silver Gong weaves a speculative story around a fir gorma who might have escaped captivity, fled to a Scottish island and formed a clan. Films of utopian-realism are a commentary on modernist and capitalist ideologies. The act ends with the myth of Icarus in Billy Klosta’s latest moving image work being explored as a queer tender, melancholic poem.
Chronicles | Act 3
A—Z presents 4 screenings of recent and older works responding to this year’s festival edition, Diaries.
Act 3 from the Chronicles series imposes a narrative and activist view.
Starting with Babeworld x utopian-realism, and their new film Love is Real, and it’s Inside Of My Computer, the artists utilise gaming and internet cultural references as entry points for arts and non-arts audiences; offering new perspectives on neurodivergent obsession as a
creative process, and problematising the impact of gallery expectations on mental health. Maria Jorank addresses chronic illness and pain in an eerie video inhabited by cyborgs and digital and movie references, in DON’T WATCH. BROKEN ASMR. I don’t wanna die. Josh Woolford’s piece invites the viewer to follow a Peaceful if I can, Portrait; a portrait of the artist, a retreat, a breathing moment in nature. Sarah Howe and JJ Chan have a new video work titled Doncaster By The Sea, touching on national and familial relations, and gender nonconformity.
Chronicles | Act 4
A—Z presents 4 screenings of recent and older works responding to this year’s festival edition, Diaries.
Act 4 expands on the uncanny, dream aesthetics and absurd realms.
Martha Rosler’s legendary work on the absurdity of women’s conditions opens this screening, and is followed by Peter Spanjer’s poetic work titled SWIM, identifying water and public space as recurring motifs within black queer narratives. We then delve into football culture in the UK and hear a coach talking to his team and also about his role in animation: Ask For It by Jordan Baseman, then looks into a sweet and sour animation by Mel Briemfileld on the UK academia.