Palimpsest Landscapes

Join us at the ICA for the chance to see current Delfina Foundation current artist-in-resident Danae Io‘s 2023 film, shown in dialogue with those of Jean-Marie Straub and Marianna Christophides.

About

Like palimpsest pages on which new writing has been superimposed on the traces of old, this programme of short films looks at landscapes as sites where multiple histories have been inscribed and overwritten on the physical terrain. In their varying filmic languages, the selected works explore landscapes not just as backdrops to narratives but as devices partaking in historical processes.

The selection of films ties in with Danae Io’s research during her residency at Delfina Foundation into ways of depicting landscapes through film as spaces where different histories co-exist over time, blending social and physical spheres. The programme operates by bringing her work in relation to filmmakers that explore the connection between people and land as well as the ways dominant narratives are formed in adjacent locations to her research.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A between Delfina Foundation artist-in-residence Danae Io and Viviana Checchia, Delfina Foundation’s Residency Curator.

Programme

À propos de venise, (Concerning Venice [History Lessons]), Dir. Jean-Marie Straub
Switzerland 2014, 24 min., French with English subtitles.

The glory and collapse of the grand Republic of Venice: the reasons are numerous, complex, human and all too human. Are these the same ingredients, the mélange that might determine whether the current Europe will survive? And if so, under what conditions? Jean-Marie Straub poses the question in this film, more austere and concentrated than ever.

Days In Between, Dir. Marianna Christophides
Germany/France/Greece 2015, 40 min., English.

This essay film reflects her recursive engagement to the border regions and topographies of violence and violation. Shot during her journeys to the Balkan region from 2011 to 2015, Christophides approaches post-industrial landscapes, activities and stereotypes assigned to ‘the Balkans’ in a refracted manner that brings forth the omissions and erasures.

Sprouts of a dragon’s teeth, Dir. Danae Io
Greece/Netherlands 2023, 9 min., Greek & English subtitles.

Between agricultural landscapes, industrial ruins and an overgrown ancient theatre, animals and insects meander in the plains of de-industrialised Thebes, Greece. A group of field workers are getting ready for their lunch break. The relationship between people and land arranges the film, in the form of a poem on autochthony, othering, and myth.

In partnership with the ICA