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JELENA JUREŠA „APHASIA“

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.

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Afazija je dugometražni filmski esej koji se bavi politikama sjećanja upisanim u društvene i povijesne kontekste. Strukturirana u tri poglevlja,  Afazija detektira mrežu odnosa koja se provlači desetljećima, udaljenim prostorima europskog kontinenta, od Belgijske kolonijalne prošlosti, razotkrivanja austrijskog rasizma i antisemitizma iz razdoblja drugog svjetskog rata, te okrutnosti rata u Bosni devedesetih. Odražava društvene i političke konstelacije, ukazuje na krize i prešućivanja, slijepe točke povijesti, redefiniranje i konstrukcije nacionalnih država i identiteta.

Afaziju – medicinski termin koji označava nemogućnost govora možemo sagledati kao kompleksan vizualni esej o neizrecivom. Od kolonijalne afazije do političke afazije, radi se o mogućnostima i potrebama reprezentacije povijesnih trauma, te o iskustvu gledatelja pred prizorima stradanja u prošlosti. Prvi dio cjeline uokviren je kolonijalnom afazijom. U suodnosu prirode i zatočeništva prepoznajemo kontekst reprezentacije Belgijske imperijalne kolonijalne prošlosti. Slijedi austrijska epizoda arhive rasnih eksperimenata i heimat filmova. Kako bi uokvirila oblike reprezentacije prema kojima pokušava uspostaviti kritički dijalog, Jelena Jureša prisvaja oblike različitih dispozitiva – filma, fotografije, muzeja, arhiva, laboratorija, njihovih formalnih, estetskih, konceptualnih, tehničkih i institucionalnih petpostavki. Filmska i fotografska slika polazište su njenog kritičkog promišljanja drugosti. Polazište interesa Jelene Jureša u razvijanju narativa oko kojeg se konstituira treća, posljednja epizoda Afazije je fotografija, koju pri tom ni u jednom trenutku ne vidimo. Međutim, razaznajemo je u govoru, prepoznajemo u pokretu. Radi se o poznatoj i emblematičnoj fotografiji Rona Haviva snimljenoj u Bjeljini, 2. travnja 1992., koju su opisali Susan Sontag, Boris Dežulović, Jean Luc Godard. “Fotografiju znamo napamet, pa je vidimo i zatvorenih očiju“. Riječima Barbare Matejčić  fotografija je u Afaziji prisutna u zrcalnim izvedbama i pokretu Ivane Jozić.

Curated by / Kustosica Branka Benčić

The screening will be followed by a discussion with the artist, Barbara Matejčić, Vesna Teršelič and Branka Benčić. / Nakon projekcije slijedi razgovor u kojem sudjeluju Jelena Jureša, Barbara Matejčić, Vesna Teršelič i Branka Benčić.

 

Jelena Jureša: Aphasia (2019), 80 min

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 SolajićProduced 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: Museum of Contemporary Art and Apoteka – Space for Contemporary Art.

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