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Tartupaluk (Prototype)

Forum Expanded Exhibition 2023
© Thibaut Larquey
Tartupaluk (Prototype) is a virtual reality experience during which users are invited to visit the imaginary Republic of Tartupaluk (“looking like a kidney”). Starring director Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory as the larger-than-life, newly inaugurated President of the Republic, the work blends 360° live-action video, motion-capture animation and VFX to bring to life a poetic, sometimes humorous Inuit utopia set in this barren, uninhabited 1.3 sq km island within the territorial waters of both Canada and Greenland. Having been the subject of real-life, decades-old economic and political disputes between Ottawa and Copenhagen, Tartupaluk is thus completely re-imagined in Laakkuluk’s visionary extravaganza.
The work, set in the glorious spring weather of the Arctic, takes users on a surreal tour of the island accompanied by the President’s arch Kalaallisut/English/Inuktitut voice-over narration, cutting between her inaugural speech recreated in various locations (on the land, inside Tartupalummiut houses, and so on), and overlapped with 3D animations illustrating how a deserted and faraway, yet politically coveted piece of land can blossom into a cross-border, humanistic and convening “nation of lovers.”

In collaboration with the Embassy of Canada
With the contribution of the Indigenous Screen Office
by Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory
with Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Jaqqa Petersen Canada / Denmark / Greenland 2023 English, Greenlandic, Inuktitut 8’ Colour World premiere

With

  • Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (President)
  • Jaqqa Petersen (Executive Assistant)

Crew

Director Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory
Screenplay Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory
Cinematography Thomas LeBlanc
Editing Mikael Lindskov Jakobsen
Music Joshua Qaumariaq
Sound Design Anders Bjoern Roerbaek Pedersen
Sound Tobias Haynes
Costumes Papatsi Kotierk
Make-Up Cynthia Pitseolak
Casting Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory
Assistant Director Roselynn Akulukjuk
Production Manager Halley Roback
Executive Producer Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory
Producers Emile Peronard, Charles Stéphane Roy

Produced by

Anorak Film

LMDP Co.

http://lamaisondeprod.com http://lamaisondeprod.com

Photos

Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory

© Chickweed Arts/Jamie Griffiths

Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory is a multi-award-winning Inuk artist, using uaajeerneq (Greenlandic mask dancing), poetry, theatre, film and performance art to tackle topics ranging from colonisation, sexuality, intergenerational strength, fear, boundaries and love. She often collaborates with friend and colleague Jamie Griffiths. Their recent collaborative works include Timiga nunalu, sikulu (My body, the land and the ice, 2016) for the touring exhibition #CallResponse and Silaup Putunga (2018), a film installation acquired by the Art Gallery of Ontario. Laakkuluk lives with her family in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

Filmography

2016 Kiinamit, Kiinamut · Timiga, Sikulu, Nunalu 2018 Silap Putunga · I am the Light of Happiness 2021 Nannuppugut! 2022 Inissaliortut 2023 Tartupaluk (Prototype)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023