In the wake of the Ukraine war, the circulation of imagery directly depicting or representing violence has surged significantly in our media environments. At the same time we have witnessed intense debates about the necessity of trigger warnings and questions regarding the political necessities of depictions of violent acts. Thus, in the coming two terms we will engage with the representation, reproduction as well as the reconstruction of the violent in films, artworks and critical moving image works. We will watch examples of works that offer novel or different perspectives to tackle the representation of violence, discuss forms of violence in political movements as well as in the context of queer, feminist, anti-racist, progressive and emancipatory struggles. We will think about and discuss, structural and economical forms of violence as well as those directed towards individual bodies and focus on the differentiation between myth, narrative, documentary formats as well as artistic expressions. Finally, we aim to engage with works proposing different forms of healing in the face of trauma. As in previous years we have prepared a selection of texts and moving image works about the topic that we will work with.
FILMS (a.o.)
REPRESENTATION
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub: Antigone, DEU/FRA, 1991, 99 min.
Shirley Clarke: Portrait of Jason, USA, 1967, 108 min.
Frederick Wiseman: Domestic Violence, USA, 2001, 196 min.
Frederick Wiseman: Zoo, US, 1993, 130 min
Walter Heynowski, Gerhard Scheumann: The laughing Man, DDR, 1966, 66 min.
Harun Farocki: Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges, BRD, 1989, 75 min.
Thomas Harlan: Wundkanal. DEU/FRAU, 1984, 102 min.
Selma Doborac: De Facto, AUT/DEU, 2023, 130 min.
REPRODUCTION
Robert Gardener: Dead Birds, USA, 1963, 64 min.
Laura Mulvey & Peter Wollen: Penthesilea, GBR,1974, 90 min.
Göran Hugo Olsson: Concerning Violence, SWE/FIN/ DNK/USA, 2014, 85min
Virginie Despentes/Coralie Trinh Thi: Baise-moi, FRA, 2000, 77 min.
Chantal Akerman: Saute Ma Ville, BEL, 1968, 13min
Chantal Akerman: Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, BEL/FRA, 1975, 201 min.
RECONSTRUCTION
Forensic Architecture: The murder of Halit Yozgat, GBR, 2017, 29 min.
Chris Marker: Stopover in Dubai, FRA, 2011, 27 min.
Alice Diop: Saint Omer, FRA, 2022, 122 min.
Harun Farocki: Ich glaubte, Gefangene zu sehen, DEU, 2000, 25 min.
HEALING
Sohrab Shahid Saless: Ordnung, BRD 1980, 96 min.
Zeina Daccache: Scheherazade’s Diary, LBN, 2013, 80 min.
TEXTS (a.o.)
Texte
Azoulay, Ariella: The Spectator is Called to Take Part, 2008. In: Beshty, Walad (Ed.): Ethics, Whitechapel Gallery: Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2015.
Chaudhuri, Shohini: Cinema of the Dark Side: Atrocity and the Ethics of Film Spectatorship. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.
Därmann, Iris. Undienlichkeit : Gewaltgeschichte Und Politische Philosophie. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2021.
Despentes, Virginie/ Benson, Stéphanie: King Kong Theory. London: Serpent’s tail, 2009.
Despentes, Virginie: Apocalypse Baby, New York: The Feminist Press, 2015.
Ten Brink, Joram/ Oppenheimer, Joshua: Killer Images: Documentary Film, Memory and the Performance of Violence. London [u.a.]: Wallflower Press, 2012.
Dorin, Elsa: Self-Defense. A Philosophy of Violence. London: Verso, 2022.
Sanyal, Mithu M.: Rape: from Lucretia to #MeToo. London: Verso, 2019.
Serubi, Moses: Violent Dreaming, e-flux Journal, Issue #107, March 2020.
Sontag, Susan: Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Picador (Farrar, Straus, Giroux), 2003.
Vergès, Françoise/Thackway, Melissa. A Feminist Theory of Violence: a Decolonial Perspective. London: Pluto Press, 2022.