Focus #3 FemLink-Art | Festival VIDEOFORMES

Focus – Thursday 12th March – 2 pm

FEMLINK-art

Art as a mirror of its time is a form of expression marked by social and political upheaval. The works in the V-composition “Protester” present us with a range of reasons and forms of protest, like so many testimonies in which the artist, confronted with the issues at stake, finds in creation a means of challenging us. From street warfare to peaceful demonstrations, from the intimate to the political, the artists explore the notion of protest in its many facets. Their works remind us that art is a powerful tool for transforming the world and for voicing calls for revolt, hymns for freedom and testimonies of a humanity in search of justice. Whether political, religious, traditional or media-based, powers of all kinds are omnipresent and influence our lives. They shape our behavior, our beliefs and our aspirations. Many artists have placed criticism of power at the center of their work, highlighting mechanisms of domination and control, but also individual and collective resistance. Art demonstrates its capacity as an opposing force when it denounces authoritarian abuses, oppression, and injustice.

Focus Screening

Overflow. A note of Suicide | Sara MALINARICH

In a hallway, the artist walks toward us, tossing sheets of paper. At the same time, this image is projected onto a screen suspended in an urban space. The flame of a candle placed beneath the screen slowly consumes the display until it disappears. Overflow. A note of suicide pays tribute to José Val del Omar, a filmmaker who, at the beginning of the 20th century, experimented with the potential of cinema to create hybrid forms between art and political engagement. By projecting his image onto a fragile surface, the artist celebrates the pioneers, those who understood that images could be a powerful tool for social transformation.

Apollo 11 | Teresa PUPPO

Apollo 11 immerses us in one of the most pivotal periods in history, the 1960s and 1970s. The video condenses a range of major historical events, social movements, and cultural transformations that marked this period. The title, Apollo 11, refers to the pinnacle of the space age, which the artist places in a broader context, where aspirations for freedom coexist with much darker realities: wars, dictatorships, and inequality.

The Value of Hands | Tanja KOISTILA

The Value of Hands contrasts the image of robotic industrial machines, symbols of the dematerialization of work, with the intimate image of an elderly hand resting next to a piece of rotting fruit. By juxtaposing hands, which we imagine to be the bearers of ancestral know-how, with impersonal machines, the artist questions the value of time, manual labor, and intergenerational transmission.

One-Course-Menu | Dilek ACAY

By reproducing the portrait of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with food, then treating it as a dish literally devoured by a group of people, the artist offers a radical metaphor for the deconstruction of authoritarian power. The voiceover delivering the dictator’s diatribes against youthful protesters contrasts with the almost meditative serenity of the dinner guests. The artist highlights the primitive and animalistic dimension of power, and by transforming a symbol of power into digestible organic matter, she invites us to take back control of the narrative and rewrite history.

Resign | Ruth BIANCO

Resign features photographs of protests taken by the artist in Bulgaria, intertwined with a video sequence showing a paving stone being thrown at another, which shatters on impact. The temporal loop of the video of the paving stone falling and the same images reversed of the paving stone flying backwards, combined with the cries of the protesters, creates an effect of suspended time. Violence appears domesticated, reduced to a mechanical repetition. The recurrence of the movement transforms the image into a visual mantra, suggesting that challenging the established order requires eternal repetition.

Famagusta – Ghost City| Maria PAPACHARALAMBOUS

Famagusta – Ghost City transports us to the center of a dead city, witness to an ongoing conflict: following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Famagusta became a ghost town. The rapid editing, alternating between close-ups of walls and windows, conveys a sense of powerlessness in the face of a frozen situation. The rhythm, punctuated by percussive sounds, reinforces this feeling of chaos. The fragmented images, like fragments of a shattered reality, invite us to piece together the puzzle of a city that has lost its soul.

Crowd Shift | Lina KARINA

Crowd Shift immerses us in the heart of a popular uprising in response to rigged elections in the Duma. The video focuses on the wave of protests that shook Russia at the end of 2011. The fragmented imagery juxtaposes scenes of peaceful demonstrations, violent clashes with the police, and media appearances by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The occasional appearance of graceful, ethereal ballerinas in tutus illustrates the disconnect between the country’s political elite and the population.

Tutti Frutti | Evgenija DEMNIEVSKA

Against a black background, a white circle serves as a foundation for the religious symbols of the three Abrahamic religions. A smaller red circle inside the white circle is used as a battlefield in which these symbols incessantly move around to confront each other. By juxtaposing the symbols of the three religions, the artist draws attention to their common roots and to the macabre dance that their followers have been waging against each other for centuries. The title evokes joy and abundance, highlighting the disconnect between the content of divine promises and our knowledge of the reality of the conflicts.

The Passion Fruit | Amina ZOUBIR

By focusing on women’s hair, The Passion Fruit is part of a long artistic tradition that uses the body as a battleground. Throughout the video, a female character tries in vain to hide her hair under a veil. The repetition of her gesture and the frustration we perceive demonstrate the difficulty of conforming to codes of conduct and imposed constraints. The artist draws a parallel between the concealing of hair and the repression of female desires and identities.

Re: Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants) | Ana BEZELGA

The video presents a reinterpretation of Ana Mendieta’s performance “Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants)” created in 1972 at the University of Iowa. Using visual documentation of the original performance, the artist reinterprets it by transposing the act of sticking hair on her face like a beard into a contemporary context. Mendieta’s performance, initially an exploration of femininity and the body, becomes for the artist a tool for deconstructing traditional hierarchies, particularly the master-disciple relationship within art schools. Through the prism of reappropriation, the video questions issues of power and transmission.

Daughter of Yemen | Susana Pilar DELAHANTE MATIENZO

The artist presents herself in a raw and vulnerable manner. Her body becomes the battleground in the fight against childhood marriage. With a frightened expression and legs spread apart, the artist’s position mimics that of a child forced to give her body to a man to whom her family has married her, like countless young girls sacrificed on the altar of ancestral traditions. The water flowing between her legs, a metaphor for male pleasure, is presented in a raw manner to bear witness to the violence suffered by the girl.

Falafel | Larissa SANSOUR et Oreet ASHERY

Falafel intertwines cooking, history, and politics. By filming their exchanges with a Palestinian grocer about the origins of falafel, the artists delve into a question of identity and culture. The video takes the form of a performance that playfully and incisively examines how a food as simple as falafel can become a power struggle. Falafel reminds us that food is a cultural vector, a marker of identity, and sometimes even a battleground. By choosing falafel, an iconic Middle Eastern dish, the artists highlight the mechanisms of cultural appropriation that underlie political conflicts.

The Tourist – Portrait of Bernard Henry Levy | Véronique SAPIN

By choosing Bernard-Henri Lévy as the representative figure of the pseudo-intellectual, the artist portrays an emblematic character of the media, whom she accuses of narcissism and superficial reflections. The Tourist deconstructs the image of the philosopher who goes “into the field” to witness and analyze. The artist inverts a video found on social media: we see Lévy walking slowly through ruins with his perfect hairstyle and immaculate white shirt, before turning back: he has seen and understood everything, no need to go any further. This back-and-forth illustrates the poverty of his analysis, reduced to a series of photographic snapshots intended for media consumption.

After the Water | Aki NAKAZAWA

After the Water brings back memories of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. A close-up of the artist’s chin and neck, drenched by rain, becomes the scene of an inner struggle. Water streams down her skin, hiding her tears and asserting its power. The sound of rain and wind reinforces the impression of chaos. Then silence descends, giving way to images of a flooding river, sweeping away everything in its path. The artist’s face in the rain reappears. She is staring at us, her mouth slightly open as if she wants to tell us something, but the image fades to black.

Interpellatio Tempus | María DOMINGUEZ ALBA

The video offers a visceral exploration of protest, not through voice or gestures, but through the body and fluids. The outline of a woman’s face and shoulders appears as a drawing on a black background. Her mouth opens and closes to eat, yawn, or scream in a sensual movement that expresses a thirst for freedom. Deprived of its usual role of verbal communication, the mouth expresses an inarticulate rebellion located in the body and in feelings. This rebellion takes shape in the fluid movement of liquids flowing from the mouth in small drops, against a joyful background of clapping hands.

Disturbance – All Units Please Respond | Eva OLSSON

This animated video explores communication norms and societal dysfunctions. An impassive face moves to the rhythm of an emotionless voice, repeating tirelessly, “All units, please respond.” This phrase, specific to police language and emergency situations, emphasizes through its repetition the absurdity of communication that leads to no response or exchange. The emergency situation cannot be resolved because the communication channel only works in one direction. In the image, behind this neutral face, a host of mouths move, forming a silent chorus.

Knitting Red Sock in Silence | Rilène MARKOPOULOU

The act of knitting is diverted from its domestic function to become a political act. The artist’s performance refers to the historical involvement of women in armed conflicts, not as combatants, but as invisible logistical support. The choice of red, the color of revolution and blood, reinforces this activist dimension. The white headband illustrates voluntary or imposed blindness and highlights the idea of a society that refuses to see women’s contributions. The sock, a remnant of the soldier, embodies a banner of silent resistance. By knitting this red sock, the artist invites us to change our perspective on the role of women in society and history.

Victus | Trixi WEIS

Victus denounces the precarious conditions in which homeless people live through a performance centered on the making of flatbread. The artist stages the actions of a woman who buys water and flour with a few coins and, kneeling in the grass, makes flatbread that she bakes and then eats. Bread, the fruit of manual labor and ancestral baking techniques, is presented in the video as food necessary for survival. The sum of €0.16, displayed at the end of Victus, reinforces its activism. This figure, which is insignificant compared to the amounts spent on food every day, promotes solidarity with those who are hungry.

Word | Minoo IRANPOUR MOBARAKEH

Word takes us to the core of a universal quest for freedom of expression, while drawing parallels with the context of Iranian society. After a long hesitation, a woman, whose face, foot, and hands we see, inserts a cassette into a tape recorder. She performs a simple but radical gesture given the conditions in which women find themselves in Iran. This act becomes a challenge, an invitation to speak freely. The mouths that stop, those that hesitate, remind us that freedom of expression is a constant struggle, a fragile balance between the desire to express oneself and the fear of reprisals.

It’s just a Game | Maria Rosa JIJON

Footage of horse races is juxtaposed with images of migrants crossing borders illegally. Their shared presence creates dissonance by drawing attention to the violence inflicted on migrants, who appear in the images as targets to be shot at. A set of words associating demands for the repeal of unjust laws with stereotypes about illegal migrants are displayed on the images. The artist seems to be warning us of a future where surveillance, dehumanization, and oppression have become the norm.