L’Internationale & Subversive Film – Collective Study in Times of Emergency (EN)
Join us for an evening with Subversive Film and the launch of Collective Study in Times of Emergency, a new e-publication presented by L’Internationale Online. The evening includes an introduction to the publication with Nick Aikens, managing editor and responsible for research, L’Internationale, a screening-talk by Subversive Film, and a discussion with Aikens, Subversive Film and artist Alex Reynolds.
In English
WIELS Auditorium
Free with registration
Ship of Exile, Jocelyne Saab, 1982
In November 2023, L’Internationale Online, the research and publishing platform for the European network of museums, arts organizations and universities, began the publishing strand ‘Towards Collective Study in Ties of Emergency’. A collective response to the drastic shifts in the public sphere as a result of the genocide in Palestine, Collective Study in Times of Emergency brings together 19 contributions commissioned spanning essays, listening sessions, poetry selections, music, and artistic contributions.
To mark the launch of the publication, as well as the next phase of this publishing strand, the Brussels and Ramallah-based collective Subversive Film, will introduce a new contribution to L’Internationale Online. Showing excerpts from several titles from the Palestine cinema anthology, the session is approached as an act of interruption in colonial and post-colonial contexts, a move to resist history writing, and as a way to explore the possibilities of archiving in times of genocide.
Nick Aikens is a curator, researcher, editor and educator. He is the Managing Editor and Research Responsible for L’Internationale Online. He assumed his role in August 2023 as part of the four year, EU funded project ’Museum of the Commons’.
Nick has a PhD from HDK-Valand, part of Gothenburg University and academic partner of L'Internationale. He was previously Curator at the Van Abbemuseum (2012–2023) where he worked on numerous exhibitions and publications as well as leading the research programme Deviant Practice (2016–2019). He was a tutor and course leader at the Dutch Art Institute in Arnhem (2012–2019) and Guest Professor in the department of Exhibitions and Scenography at Karlsruhe University (2023–2024).
Alex Reynolds delves into our modes of relation as they appear embodied in cinematic language, questioning the medium’s conventions to explore the emancipatory potential of play and refusal. Blurring the limits of film language, her work transcends the strictly visual, finding expression in sound, performance, or collaborations with other makers such as Alma Söderberg or Rob Ochshorn.
Her work has been shown at Contour Biennial (Mechelen), Guggenheim Bilbao, Beursschouwburg (Brussels), Index Foundation (Stockholm), Hollybush Gardens (London), Caixaforum Barcelona, Ca2m (Madrid) or the Miró Foundation (Barcelona), among others. Her films have been screened at festivals such as BFI London Film Festival, FIDMarseille, Prismatic Ground (New York), or Documenta Madrid. She is visiting professor at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent.
Subversive Film is a cinema research and production collective that aims to cast new light upon historic works related to Palestine and the region, to engender support for film preservation, and to investigate archival practices. Their long-term and ongoing projects explore this cine-historic field including digitally reissuing previously overlooked films, curating rare film screening cycles, subtitling rediscovered films, producing publications, and devising other forms of interventions. Formed in 2011, Subversive Film is based between Palestine, Brussels and elsewhere.