Halcyon: New Short Films

At this film screening curator Rachel Dedman explores science fiction in the contemporary video work of artists from or based in Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt. Dedman will introduce four short films by Mirna Bamieh, Tom Bogaert, Lea Najjar and Larissa Sansour.

The screening follows on from Halcyon, an exhibition project Dedman is curating for the Transart Triennale (5th-7th August 2016, Berlin). Halcyon combines video, texts from five authors and specially-commissioned graphic design to expand upon traditional definitions of science fiction as a genre in writing and film. The project considers the ways in which sci-fi might offer models for the disruption of established narratives, alternative articulations of the self and subtle negotiations of the future.

Dedman focuses on the ways artists and writers use the critical possibilities of science fiction to address contemporary urgencies surrounding identity, placehood, conflict, landscape, history, technology and architecture.

The 45-minute screening will be followed by readings from texts by Muhammed Khudayyir, Darine Hotait and Arjuna Neuman, and a 30 minute Q&A.