A SNAIL IS A SNAIL, A MOON(’S) LAMENT, THE TEARS OF THE SUN

Join us for an afternoon of performances and screenings with Sophie Wright, Maryam Shahidifar and Kleoniki Stanich. Using images (and their lack) as portals to other places, people, beings and even to our own minds and bodies, we will journey through time and space, exploring and cultivating new relationships as we travel.   

Programme

14.30 - Walk-in
15.00 - MOON(‘s) LAMENT, A Snail is a Snail
15.45 - Tea pause
16.00 - The Tears of the Sun, Becoming Anna, She Wiped the Earth Off Her Face
16.45 - Discussion
17.00 - Exhibition closes

MOON(’s) LAMENT by Sophie Wright 

Film, 14 minutes

Giving voice to a dysregulated moon – fed up both with having to witness the destruction we wreak on Earth, our deranged reimagining of time as well as our projections – this lament takes on the unstable energy of our image-obsessed epoch as the lunar body tries to evade the lens of the filmmaker. 

A Snail is a Snail by Maryam Shahidifar

Guided visualisation, 25 minutes

In this performative reading, the audience is invited to close their eyes and allow their bone structure to dissolve into their flesh as they slowly take on the body and wisdom of a snail.  

Tea pause, 15 minutes.

The Tears of the Sun by Sophie Wright

Lecture performance & film, 35 minutes 

Exploring two materials that trap time and motion – amber (fossilised tree resin) and photography – this lecture grapples with questions around stillness and motion, truth and fiction, distance and intimacy. Followed by Nie Było Nas Był Las (when we were there, there was forest), a short film about aunts, an ancient fly and the first (?) woman to climb Mont Blanc. 

Becoming Anna by Kleoniki Stanich 

Film, 4 minutes 

She Wiped the Earth Off Her Face by Kleoniki Stanich 

Film, 6 minutes 

In search of an antithesis to traditional narratives that view women as mostly passive or dead, these films not only grieve for this conditioning but reframe sorrow as a rebellious act, diverting from common expectations that wish for women and girls to perform as pleasant, available and desirable. Through fiction, they reanimate bodies that have been deemed dead by reimagining endless potential in cultivating a new self. This becomes a gesture of collective remembering outlined by the ritual of lament singing as seen in Northern Greece and Southern Albania.

A discussion will follow.  

About the artists

Sophie Wright: https://sophiewright.berta.me
Maryam Shahidifar: https://shahidifar.com
Kleoniki Stanich: http://www.kleonikistanich.com