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On this shore, here.

Forum Expanded Exhibition 2023
© Jasmina Metwaly
In this fable, in a form of an animated triptych, a gorgon is brought to life. Crowned not with snakes, but long projections that can detect the pasts and futures of a city. The present, we learn, is frozen in Medusa’s gaze. In the work, the gaze can be understood as a medium to investigate these different tenses. The texts-songs intertwine testimonies and myths from protagonists like: the Alexandrian historian bearing witness to an earthquake in AD 365, Carbon-12 and Carbon-14 – radioactive formations that are a result of cosmic ray strikes – and Medusa avatars as voicing narrators that take on multiple roles. Here, both the past and future are a myth that one needs either to forget or to look forward to. And how in this struggle to look at their eyes and not to, all at once, once more we see the lost, the forgotten, the future-pasts of a city.
by Jasmina Metwaly
with Alaa Abdulatif Germany / Belgium / France 2022 English 23’ Colour International premiere

With

  • Alaa Abdulatif

Crew

Director Jasmina Metwaly
Written by Jasmina Metwaly
Cinematography Jasmina Metwaly
Editing Mohamed A. Gawad
Sound Design Kinda Hasan
Music Alaa Abdulatif, Mohamed A. Gawad, Jasmina Metwaly
Sound Jasmina Metwaly
Costumes Marta Szypulska
Animation Nurah Farahat
Producers Jasmina MetwalyBozar – Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels
Mucem – Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée

Jasmina Metwaly

Jasmina Metwaly is an artist and filmmaker based in Cairo and Berlin, and a member of the Mosireen video collective. She works in video and film, and has recently started drawing again. Rooted in performance, theater, and film, her works focus on process-based practices that have a social function generating tension between participants and audiences. Metwaly’s work has been exhibited at international art venues and festivals. After From Behind of the Monument (2013) and Out on the Street (2015) with Philip Rizk, this is her third Forum Expanded participation.

Filmography

2008 Counter-Points; 4 min. · Counter-Points · Splash II; 8 min., video installation 2009 Remarks on Colour (Red Version); 1 min. · Remarks on Colour (Red Version) · Flew Like Plywood over Paris; 5 min., video installation · Anti-Contraption I; 5 min. · Anti-Contraption I · But What Do the Splinters Reflect · But What Do the Splinters Reflect; 6 min. 2011 Remarks on Medan; 32 min., video installation 2012 About the Donkey That Wanted to Become a Painting; 7 min. · About the Donkey That Wanted to Become a Painting · Crucifiction (Yellow Version); 4 min., video installation 2013 From Behind of the Monument · From Behind of the Monument; 16 min., Forum Expanded 2014 2015 Barra Fel Share' (Out on the Street); 71 min., Forum Expanded 2015 · Barra Fel Share' (Out on the Street) 2018 We Are Not Worried in the Least · We Are Not Worried in the Least; video installation 2022 On This Shore, Here.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023