Research Catalogue

Happening, 2016. Participant's research, including improvised full recorded interview with first generation Albanian immigrants to Greece, images, and thematic text. The research was conducted for the workshop, "Logics of Worlds", organised by architect Filippos Oraiopoulos, at Athens School of Fine Art (ASFA), Master of Visual Arts (Marios Spiliopoulos, Giorgios Xiropaides), December 2016. I used play as a method to facilitate improvised discussions. People share and respond more freely when participating in structured, but playful interactions, such as those a game involves. Albanians speak three languages, Albanian, Greek and Italian, so I wasn't able to translate parts of the conversation. Avlona is an English now obsolete name for Vlore, an Albanian seaport and former ancient Greek colony Aulon. Notably, the workshop was slightly interrupted by a performance art student, who brought a live hen to slaughter in the studio. This can be taken as a metaphor for scapegoating refugees. For this exposition, I include an essay by Pantelis Boukalas, in Kyriakos Katzourakis, O "Dromos Pros Ti Dysi" (The Way to the West), 2001, as well as Kyriakos Katzourakis' introduction in English. The exposition also aims to juxtapose the experimental and the conceptual in the fine arts; and to make the 'invisible' visible. 2023: The outcome of this project is that "I" have been on UK police databases as a disabled 18 year-old Albanian transvestite; maybe married to a Swedish neo-Nazi.

A cross disciplinary artistic research project that departs from, and investigates several encounters and alignments between Contemporary Art and Archaeology. Its primary goal is to create a broad selection of autonomous and collaborative artistic, poetic and scientific expressions and responses to Prehistoric Art and its contemporary images. It will seek to stimulate a deeper understanding of contemporary and prehistoric artistic expression and the contemporary and prehistoric human condition. The participating artists and archaeologists will create autonomous projects, but also interact with each other in workshops, seminars and collaborative artistic projects. The secondary goal of Matter, Gesture and Soul is to establish an international cross disciplinary research network at the University of Bergen and strengthen the expertise in cross disciplinary artistic and scientific work with artistic research as the driving force. The project is financed by DIKU and UiB and supported by Global Challenges (UiB)

key words: climate crisis, anthropocene, art & anthropology

From the moment I was born, my grandmother said the following words to my mother about me: “Be careful with this one, this child will be tough as a rock.” My grandmother was not wrong. I was a tough child – I am a tough child. It was not until later during my teenage years that I was diagnosed with the disorders that would completely shift my world. I spiralled down deeper into agony and self-destructive behaviours. My mental health consistently deteriorated, my disorders consuming every bit of me, and I felt insane. In art, I found my escape. Through Edvard Munch, a mastermind who was able to decipher and express his troubles in art, I felt less alone. Unable to cope with my intense emotions, I have always been convinced that I am, in one way or another, insane. And for the first time, through art, I felt somewhat sane.

Abstract: (in Finnish below) THE THIRD WORLD ECOLOGY TRILOGY: Postcoloniality, Embodiment and Ecology By Rania Lee Khalil, University of Arts Helsinki, Theatre Academy The Third World Ecology Trilogy is a moving image performance and artistic research project by Rania Lee Khalil which investigates the harms of colonialism across interspecies habitats in Palestine, Egypt and the continent of Africa more broadly, at a time of widespread anticolonial revolutions in the mid 20th century. This doctoral thesis uses the artists' video and familial archives to remember third world feminist and indigenous movements instructive to ecological thought and artistic research in the present. It outlines the development of the artists' embodied image making methodology central to this research. The Third World Ecology Trilogy is accompanied by three published articles which discuss each section individually. The trilogy consists of Palestinian Wildlife Series: an experimental video performance centering images of African animals shot from a television set in Palestine, to reflect on parallel themes of mediation, displacement and extinction. Its 2016 article in The Journal of Artistic Research chronicles the artist’s research into the plants and people of Palestine via experimental film theory, posthuman and postcolonial thought. The Pan African Asian Women’s Organization, Cairo to Conakry, 1960-1965 chronicles the cofounding of an organization of the same name, by Khalil’s maternal grandmother, Aida Hamdi. Its 2018 article in the journal Performance and Otherness, reflects on the use of personal and political images in performance, recalling obscured histories through her grandmothers’ images and comrades, who included Djamilla Bourhired and Zohra Drif, heroines of the 1962 Algerian revolution. The final piece in this trilogy, Sinai, a story i tell my daughter, is a video essay which considers a parallel dimension to earth where all of its tragedies never happened. Created within the underwater landscape of Sinai, Egypt’s Bedouin ancestral lands, its 2021 article in The Journal of Embodied Research considers endangered marine life in relation to tourism, within the framework of colonial and neocolonial development. Revisiting original outtakes, this video article reflects on disappearing interspecies life and cultures, through the artist’s extensive embodied research. Index: (keywords) Postcolonial; Palestine; Movement; Moving Image; Ecology THE THIRD WORLD ECOLOGY TRILOGY: 
Postcoloniality, Embodiment and Ecology Rania Lee Khalil, Taideyliopisto, Teatterikorkeakoulu Third World Ecology Trilogy on Rania Lee Khalilin liikkuvaa kuvaa käyttävä esityskokonaisuus ja taiteellinen tutkimushanke, jossa tutkitaan kolonialismin aiheuttamia haittoja lajien välisissä elinympäristöissä Palestiinassa, Egyptissä ja Afrikan mantereella 1900-luvun puolivälissä tapahtuneiden laajamittaisten antikoloniaalisten vallankumousten aikana. Työssä hyödynnetään taiteilijan video- ja perhearkistoja kolmannen maailman feminististen ja alkuperäiskansaliikkeiden muistamisessa. Nämä liikkeet ovat nykypäivänäkin merkityksellisiä sekä ekologiselle ajattelulle että taiteelliselle tutkimukselle. Työssä kehitetään myös tutkimuksen kannalta keskeistä kehollista kuvantekomenetelmää.  Trilogiaan liittyy kolme erillistä julkaistua artikkelia. Trilogia koostuu Palestinian Wildlife Series -sarjasta, joka on kokeellinen videoperformanssi, jossa keskitytään palestiinalaisesta televisiolähetyksestä poimittuihin kuviin afrikkalaisista eläimistä, ja pohditaan yhtäaikaisia välittymisen, syrjäyttämisen ja sukupuuttoon kuolemisen teemoja. Siihen liittyvässä, vuonna 2016 Journal of Artistic Research -julkaisussa ilmestyneessä artikkelissa tutkimuksen kohteina olivat palestiinalaiset kasvit ja ihmiset kokeellisen elokuvateorian sekä jälkihumanistisen ja postkolonialistisen ajattelun kautta. The Pan African Asian Women’s Organization, Cairo to Conakry, 1960–1965 kertoo Khalilin äidinpuoleisen isoäidin, Aida Hamdin, perustamasta samannimisestä järjestöstä. Vuonna 2018 Näyttämö & tutkimus -julkaisussa ilmestyneessä artikkelissa pohditaan henkilökohtaisten ja poliittisten kuvien käyttöä esityksessä ja palautetaan mieliin hämärtyneitä tarinoita tutkijan isoäidin kuvien ja ystävien kautta, joihin kuuluivat Algerian vuoden 1962 vallankumouksen sankarit Djamilla Bourhired ja Zohra Drif. Trilogian viimeinen osa, Sinai, a story i tell my daughter, on videoessee, jossa tarkastellaan maapallon rinnakkaista ulottuvuutta, jossa mikään sen tragedioista ei koskaan toteutunut. Artikkeli ilmestyi vuonna 2021 The Journal of Embodied Research -julkaisussa. Sen tapahtumaympäristönä on Siinain, Egyptin beduiinien esi-isien maiden, vedenalainen maisema, ja siinä tarkastellaan matkailun vaikutusta uhanalaiseen merielämään kolonialistisen ja uuskolonialistisen kehityksen puitteissa. Tässä videoartikkelissa käytetään tutkijan kuvaamia videoaineistoja ja pohditaan katoavaa lajien välistä elämää ja kulttuureja laaja-alaisen kehollisen tutkimuksen kautta. Hakemisto: (avainsanat) postkoloniaalinen; Palestiina; liike; liikkuva kuva; ekologia 

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