Munem Wasif, Machine Matter, Single channel projection, 2017
Artists: Mikołaj Sobczak, Munem Wasif,Jibade-Khalil Huffman.
Artists’ Film International is a collaborative project featuring film, video and animation from around the world.
Established by the Whitechapel Gallery in 2008, Artists’ Film International includes 18 global partner organisations. The programme brings together recent moving image works which are presented over the course of a year in each venue.
The global consortium AFI curates works on the theme of truth in international artist’s film today.
In Machine Matter (2017) by Munem Wasif (b. 1983, Bangladesh), the weight of the memories of machines and bodies in abandoned jute factories mirror the economic struggles of post-colonial Bangladesh.
In Star (2017), a pseudo-documentary by Mikołaj Sobczak (b. 1989, Poland), drag queens occupy Warsaw’s Museum of Natural History during a ‘crisis of masculinity’. The energy of the far-right protests is juxtaposed with that of the STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) movement in 1970s New York.
First Person Shooter (2016) invites the viewer to navigate footage from violent and formulaic video games, TV, videos and texts by Jibade-Khalil Huffman (b. 1981, USA), and a disquieting soundtrack, to reflect on the black community’s daily struggles in present day USA.