The Warp and Weft of History: Public Programme II
Kristina Benjocki
5 November 2023

For the second public programme event of ‘The Warp and Weft of History,’ we are pleased to invite Julian Ross to program an evening of screenings informed by the latest film installation by Kristina Benjocki and Stijn Verhoeff, ‘While the Pile of Rubble Grows Towards the Sky’.

During the making of ‘While the Pile of Rubble Grows Towards the Sky’, Benjocki and Verhoeff sourced an extensive collection of archival imagery and information as key visual and conceptual informants for their film. These unearthed representations of history became the materiality for their inquiry, simultaneously substantiating and refuting one’s understanding of the past.

As the repurposing of images becomes more prevalent than ever in the age of social media, artists continue to draw on existing material as image resources. Further digitization and dissemination of archival material have also brought forward more questions about how to reinterpret these images and information to better understand the past in our present. Through this film programme, Ross will share three short films that explore how rematerializing the archive can bring forth the haptic quality of repurposed footage and invite a reflective spectatorship surrounding the personal, the political, and the present.

Julian Ross is a curator, researcher, and writer based in Amsterdam. He is a co-programmer of Doc Fortnight 2024 at The Museum of Modern Art, co-programmer of The Flaherty Seminar 2024, and a film program advisor at IDFA. Ross is also Assistant Professor at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS).

The screening event will take place on November 5 from 18:00-20:00. There is a viewing of ‘While the Pile of Rubble Grows Towards the Sky’ which will begin at 17:20 in the exhibition, and is recommended to watch before the screening event, if not already seen. To RSVP for the event please email us at info@looiersgracht60.org.

Selected Films:

It’s not a prison if you never try the door, Joshua Gen Solondz, 2013, USA

Nazarbazi, Maryam Tafakory, 2022, UK

Wishing Well, Sylvia Schedelbauer, 2018, Germany