Visionary Archive Festival

Two years ago, Arsenal initiated a translocal experiment. The "Visionary Archive" project, which is supported by the TURN Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation, places different cinematographic contexts in Berlin, Bissau, Johannesburg, Cairo, and Khartoum in relationship with one another.

The central question here is what transcultural, curatorial and artistic work with archives and archival research can look like today. Alongside Arsenal and the perspective that comes from its unique in-house collection, the project partners are the non-governmental project Cimatheque – Alternative Film Centre (Cairo), the independent cinema The Bioscope (Johannesburg), the archive of deceased filmmaker Gadalla Gubara (Khartoum), and the Geba Filmes association (Bissau).

From May 21-31, the participants will be giving insights into their material, presenting their findings and discussing open questions with invited guests and audiences. This festival brings the project to a close even as there are still many things yet to be accomplished and takes in films, exhibitions, three workshops, and open-air cinema screenings. In addition to Arsenal, the festival is also taking place at the Scriptings and Archive Kabinett project spaces. The festival language is English.