Date: 30.05.2018
Beginning: 19:00

Politics of Truth III – Image of the Other (Karrabing Film Collective)

Who is our „other“? And how does the camera work with his/her/their image? The third chapter of The Politics of Truth research project focuses on the intersections between documentary approaches and contemporary postcolonial thinking. Instead of describing postcolonial conditions and seeking their changes, works of art will be presented during two evening screenings, which deal with the inclusion of communities defined by their cultural difference. This inclusion can happen either by the change of format – the camera followed by the viewer will accommodate to the environment, or by the community itself getting hold of the means of expression.

The first screening night will be devoted to the Karrabing Film Collective, established in 2008 in the effort to critically and actively respond to governmental measures against the Indigenous tribes in the North West Australia. Deteriorating social conditions and forced evacuation from their territory in the name of land exploitation interests led to the union of several members who together with anthropologist and gender theoretician Elizabeth Povinelli started to make films about themselves, their stories and living circumstances, where documentary images are interlaid with staged scenes. Karrabing members themselves named this style an “improvisational realism”.

Their first film When the Dogs Talked (2014) deals with life in tents and the housing crisis of Indigenous citizens; compared to that, the recent picture Wutharr – Saltwater Dreams (2016) explores in an almost psychedelic and surrealistic imagery the moral rules established by the Christian missionaries. The video thus calls our attention to the change of spirit, which has been the basis of any colonial project.

The video screenings of the Karrabing Film Collective will be commented on by the art theoretician, Directress of Artyčok.tv and of the Montenegro National Gallery, Vjera Borozan. The videos will be screened with English subtitles.

Videos to be screened:

When the Dogs Talked (2014)
Wutharr – Saltwater Dreams (2016)

Project curators: Alžběta Bačíková and Anna Remešová
Politics of Truth III. – Image of the Other
1st May – 17th June 2018