Two years ago, Arsenal initiated a translocal experiment. The “Visionary Archive“ project, places different cinematographic contexts in Berlin, Bissau, Johannesburg, Cairo, and Khartoum in relationship with one another.

It explores future perspectives in contemporary, transcultural, curatorial and artistic work with archives and archival research. The partners are: the Arsenal with its film collection, the Cimatheque – Alternative Film Centre (Cairo), the independent cinema The Bioscope (Johannesburg), the estate of film-maker Gadalla Gubara (Khartoum) and Geba Filmes association (Bissau). From May 21 to 31, the participants will come to Berlin to provide insights into the material they are dealing with, to present results, and to discuss unresolved questions with invited guests and the public. A closing event with many open ends, the “Visionary Archive” Festival presents film screenings, work in progress presentations and three workshops at the Arsenal cinema, exhibition displays and curators’ talks at the project spaces Scriptings and Archive Kabinett. The workshops will profit from inputs from the “Visionary Archive” sub-projects and invited artists and experts. They tackle questions of Materiality (May 23), the politics of “reprise” (Reprendre, May 30) and the mobility of films and their audiences (Mobility, May 31). Archive Kabinett hosts displays on the entanglement of B-Schemes films with popular comic books and on the creation of an alternative Egyptian archive featuring printed matters from Cimatheque – Alternative Film Centre in Cairo together with amateur footage. At Scriptings, the project “Studio Gad” presents for the first time an installation of 40 hours of footage by Sudanese film pioneer Gadalla Gubara. A curators’ talk will be held on May 26. All events are in English, film languages may differ. Find more information about the program me here: www.arsenal-berlin.de

With films by Ahmed Bedjaoui, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, David Bensusan, Charles Burnett, Assia Djebar, Tobias Engel, Haile Gerima, Gadalla Gubara, Med Hondo, Lennart Malmer, Chris Marker & Alain Resnais, Tonie van der Merwe, Sana na N’Hada, Pape Seck, Ousmane Sembène, Luis de Witt u.a.

Guests: Enoka Ayemba (Curator, Berlin), Ahmed Bedjaoui (Film Scholar/Journalist/Curator/Filmmaker, Algiers/Paris), Jean-Pierre Bekolo (Filmmaker/Producer, Yaoundé/Paris), Bino Byansi Byakuleka (African Refugee Union), Kudzanai Chiurai (Artist, Harare), Project “Colonial Neighbours” (Gallery SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin), Tobias Engel (Filmmaker, Paris), Sifiso Khanyile (Filmmaker/Producer, Johannesburg), Brigitta Kuster (Artist/Theoretician, Berlin), Achim Lengerer (Artist/Curator, Berlin), Angelika Levi (Filmmaker, Berlin), Lennart Malmer (Filmmaker, Stockholm), Litheko Modisane (Literary Scholar, Johannesburg), Aïssatou Seidi (Journalist, Bissau), Shaymaa Shokry (Curator, Cairo), Ala Younis (Artist/Curator, Amman)

Visionary Archive: Yasmin Desouki (Revisiting Memory, Cairo), Darryl Els (B-Schemes, Johannesburg), Sara Gubara, Nadja Korinth, Stefan Pethke, Rhea Schmitt & Katharina von Schroeder (Studio Gad, Khartoum), Filipa César & Sana na N’Hada (From Boé to Berlin – Mobile Lab on the film history of Guinea-Bissau, Berlin & Bissau), Marie-Hélène Gutberlet & Tobias Hering (It all depends, Berlin), Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin).

The „Visionary Archive“ project is funded by the TURN fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Thanks to the Goethe-Institute especially the institutes in Algiers, Dakar, Cairo, Johannesburg, Khartoum and Yaoundé for their generous support.

www.arsenal-berlin.de