Immerse yourself in a series of moving image works which explore how land becomes both archive and witness, carrying the weight of historical violence while nurturing possibilities of liberation and renewal.

Join us for an evening of film screenings curated by winter 2025 resident Simon Speiser.

The film programme Scars extending onto our land brings together moving image works that excavate the complex relationships between collective trauma and territorial histories. Through diverse perspectives spanning multiple continents, these works examine how land carries the memory of historical wounds while simultaneously holding the potential for healing and reimagining futures.

Spanning from the fallen debris of space exploration in rural China, in Xin Liu’s Film The White Stone, 2021 to the sacred obsidian mines of pre-Hispanic Ecuador in Ardrian Balsecas work Elogio a la oscuridad (In Praise of Darkness), 2024. Abdul Halik Azeez shines light on contemporary identity formation of Sri Lankan Muslims and the micro impacts of macro events such as neoliberalism, the war on terror and religious puritanism, with his video work Stranger in a Strange Land, 2024. While Enzo Camacho and Amy Lien explore the afterlife of the 1985 Escalante Massacre on the island of Negros in the Philippines, in their film Langit Lupa (Heaven and Earth),  2023. Simon Speiser gives insight into the history of the maroon society of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, through the lens of string theory, with Naufragio Liberador (Liberating Shipwreck) 2024. These artists employ various approaches, from poetic documentation to speculative physics, from family archives to ritual reenactments, to unearth stories embedded in landscapes and communities, each work maps different coordinates of displacement, extraction, and resistance.

These works challenge linear narratives of progress and territory, revealing how past traumas continue to shape present realities while also illuminating paths toward collective healing and alternative futures. Through their lens, we witness how land becomes both archive and witness, carrying the weight of historical violence while nurturing possibilities of liberation and renewal.

Screening Schedule:

Attendees are welcome to come and go as they please during the breaks in between screenings.

6:00pm – Stranger in a Strange Land, 2024 (26 minutes), Abdul Halik Azeez, with a brief introduction by the artist.

6:30pm – 5-minute break

6:35pm – Elogio a la oscuridad (In Praise of Darkness), 2024 (15 minutes), Adrián Balseca, with a brief introduction by Simon Speiser.

6:55 – 10-minute break

7:05pm – The White Stone, (22 minutes), Xin Liu, with a brief introduction by Simon Speiser.

7:35 – 5-minute break

7:40pm – Naufragio Liberador (Liberating Shipwreck), 2024, (18 minutes), Simon Speiser, with a brief introduction by the artist.

7:55 – 10-minute break

8:05pm – Langit Lupa (Heaven and Earth), 2023 (56 minutes), Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien, with a brief introduction by Simon Speiser.

BIOGRAPHIES

Abdul Halik Azeez is based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. A multidisciplinary artist and organizer, his work explores relationships between colonialism, neoliberalism, memory/history making and identity politics, taking Sri Lanka as a point of departure for his investigations. Abdul Halik Azeez has a MA in Linguistics and Literature from the University of Granada, and an MA in Financial Economics from the university of Colombo. He spent many years practicing as a journalist, economist and researcher working on Critical Discourse Analysis before turning to art practice full time. As an artist he has recently shown his work in the Asia Pacific Triennial (2024), Videobrasil (2023), Berlinale (2023), Breda Foto (2024) and documenta fifteen (2022), and has been invited to residencies and fellowships with the Delfina Foundation (2025), Akademie Schloss Solitude (2025-2026), Prince Claus Fund (2023) and the Sharjah Art Foundation (2022).

Adrián Balseca (Quito, 1989) is an artist and filmmaker based in Buenos Aires. His work focuses on highlighting specific aspects of different ecosystems through artistic strategies, investigating socio-environmental agendas related to extractive processes. Recent exhibitions include: Nyctalopia (Void Art Centre, Derry, 2023); 55th Visions Du Réel International Film Festival (Nyon, 2024); Critical Landscapes: Selected Works from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection (MCA Denver, Denver, 2023); ROUTING RUBBER (New York, 2024; The genetically altered seed breaks the rhythm of an earthly music—Encounters over Several Plants (TATE Modern, London, 2022); Who Tells a Tale Adds a Tail: Latin America and Contemporary Art (Denver Art Museum, Denver, 2022); 34th São Paulo Biennial: Faz escuro mas eu canto (Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, São Paulo, 2021); among others.

Based in Berlin and New York, for over a decade, Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien’s multidisciplinary practice has addressed geopolitical relations by attending to localized forms of dispossession, survival, and resistance, particularly in the context of the Philippines. Solo exhibitions of their work have been held at MoMA PS1, New York; the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art; Para Site, Hong Kong; 47 Canal, New York; and Green Papaya Art Projects, Quezon City, Philippines among others.

Simon Speiser is an German-Ecuadorian artist known for his interdisciplinary approach that merges nature and technology through various media, including writing, sculpture, virtual reality and video installations as well as textile work and printmaking. His works explores themes of origins and the interplay between human and technological worlds. Blending virtual reality and ancestral folklore, weaving science fiction with non-western conceptions of technology, and believing in storytelling as a tool in the fight against dystopian thinking, Speiser often creates immersive, sensory experiences that highlight the convergence of traditional knowledge and contemporary digital techniques, showcasing the resilience and adaptability of precolonial cultures . He has exhibited at Tai Kwun, Tate Modern, Julia Stoschek Foundation, Walter Phillips Gallery Banff, CAC Quito and Frankfurter Kunstverein among others.

Xin Liu (b.Xinjiang) is a multidisciplinary artist and engineer, who creates sculptures, digital experiences, and films that feature machinery, genetic material, petroleum, and rocket debris, to explore the verticality of space, extraterrestrial explorations, and cosmic metabolism. Xin is an artist-in-residence at SETI Institute and the founding Arts Curator in the Space Exploration Initiative at MIT Media Lab, a Visiting Fellow at Cornell Tech and an advisor for LACMA Art+Tech Lab. Currently, she is a resident artist at Somerset House and Delfina Foundation. Her work has been shown at Shanghai Biennale, Thailand Biennale, M+ Museum, Yuz Museum, MoMA PS1, MAXXI Rome, Sundance Film Festival, Ars Electronica, and Onassis Foundation, Sapporo International Art Festival, among others.