REPUBLIC OF THE OTHER
(2021)
author(s): Xenia Mura Fink, Jinny Yu
published in: Research Catalogue
REPUBLIC OF THE OTHER is an art collective consisting of and founded by Jinny Yu and Xenia Fink.
A contradiction in itself, REPUBLIC OF THE OTHER reflects our questioning of geographic and national identities defined by borders and boundaries and is the basis of our research on the attraction to form an entity.
Our collaboration started with the urgency to express our resistance against the generalized right-wing tendency, with nation-states and borders strengthening with great force worldwide and with the conviction that we have something to contribute to the discussion.
Manifestos as a subject matter are our way to describe a utopia where we all accept each other as an “other”.
Our practice is executed through exchanging and developing ideas from our respective locations. Remotely sharing thoughts naturally lend to working with text as a medium; when we occasionally do convene, concepts may also take the shape of installations and video work.
DAYS IN BETWEEN
(2020)
author(s): Marianna Christofides
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
In accordance to generic tropes in the way the Balkans are represented, conflicts in the region are repeatedly ‘naturalized’ in their description, and attributed geological-seismological features. With the essay film Days In Between Marianna Christofides and her collaborator Bernd Bräunlich recursively visited the Balkans between 2011 and 2015, at first seeking out littoral borders where the course of the boundary remains indefinite. Rivers as invisible yet politically instrumental borders was one of the initial narrative strands. Having lost the first few years worth of audiovisual material, the data on the hard drive being unretrievable, they decided to return, only to find that the places no longer existed in the same way. Both topography and social fabric in ceaseless flux. Their approach extended accordingly, now focusing on loss, omissions, obfuscation and disappearance. The appropriation of nature’s workings in political discourse came to the fore. As did the filmmaker’s inhibiting yet empowering fringe location. Through a reflective lens of doubt agency was re-calibrated. The project grew wider in a recurring attempt at approaching, and began to expand, up until the present and in multiple iterations. Within this non-finite process the constant failure, and the beginning anew, became integral parts of the narrative.