When a door closes, it does not necessarily mean that a possibility ends. The 10th Forum Expanded challenges this sense of finality by tracing the echo of the slammed door. The program seeks out the points at which projects and utopias are able to come into being and the way in which historical ruptures and upheavals generate visions and expectations for the future. Yet the movements and narratives created by closing, opening, and stepping through these metaphorical doors also imply the possibility of exclusion and the failure of new projects – but how does one measure success or a lack thereof anyway?
Now in its 10th anniversary year, Forum Expanded will not only present the most comprehensive program to date, but also a number of performances and films exclusively for the opening of the exhibition at Akademie der Künste at Hanseatenweg on Thursday, February 4. The entire Forum Expanded film program will be shown here as well as the more than 20 installation works. The opening includes contributions by CHEAP, Heinz Emigholz, Harun Farocki, Friedl vom Gröller, Lara Khaldi and Yazan Khalili, Constanze Ruhm, Michael Snow, and Ala Younis.
venue opens at 18:00
19:00 Doors Open
Introduction by the curators Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Director), Anselm Franke, Nanna Heidenreich, Bettina Steinbrügge, Ulrich Ziemons
Presentations, Films and Performances by Heinz Emigholz, Harun Farocki, Constanze Ruhm, Michael Snow, Ala Younis and CHEAP
Opening Film
"Ruhe auf der Leinwand"
Friedl vom Gröller, 16 mm, colour, silent, 2 min
The view is focused on a painting while the sound remains silent. In this 16mm film, the screen is doubled: as a site of projection and as the site of images that the camera quietly observes. We glance at the portrait of a woman that is unknown to us at first. An appreciation of art on two levels.
21:30 Lecture-Performance
"Love Letter to a Union: The Falling Comrades"
Lecture Performance by Lara Khaldi and Yazan Khalili (Palestinian Territories), with films by Basma Alsharif and Jumana Emil Abboud
This lecture-performance is a letter exchange between distanced lovers who write about their daily lives while conflating several love stories and historical events, including the brief formation and fall of the United Arab Republic and the first Intifada, reading them through the disruptive act of love. During the lecture performance they exchange archival footage, listen to songs, and watch two films together with the audience: The Story of Milk and Honey (Basma Alsharif, 2011, 10 min) is a video that weaves together images, letters, and songs that detail the failed writing of a love story in Beirut, Lebanon. The Diver (Jumana Emil Abboud, 2004, 5 min) is a video narrative that tells the story of a Diver whose gender, name, and nationality are ambiguous, and who is on an endless search to find ‘Heart’.
