DAYS IN BETWEEN

Marianna Christofides

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.

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REFERENCE LIST

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Babias, Marius. “Reinventing the Balkans” in Die Balkan-Trilogie/The Balkans Trilogy, ed. René Block and Marius Babias (Kassel, München: Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Verlag Silke Schreiber, 2007)

Barad, Karen. “Troubling time/s and ecologies of nothingness: re-turning, re-membering, and facing the incalculable” in New Formations, Issue 92 (2017)

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Block, René and Babias, Marius. “Preface” in Die Balkan-Trilogie/The Balkans Trilogy, eds. René Block and Marius Babias (Kassel, München: Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Verlag Silke Schreiber, 2007)

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Žižek, Slavoj cited by Bojana Pejić, “The Center-Periphery Paradigm Once Again” in Die Balkan-Trilogie/The Balkans Trilogy, eds. René Block and Marius Babias (Kassel, München: Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Verlag Silke Schreiber, 2007)

Excerpts & Stills in this Exposition

DAYS IN BETWEEN, 2011-2015

essay film, 16mm transferred to HD, colour & b/w, 40:00

research/script: Bernd Bräunlich, Marianna Christofides
cinematography, editing, sound (recording & design): Marianna Christofides

music: George Georgiou Vasileiades

voice: Steve Hudson

DAYS IN BETWEEN. RIVERS, BANKS, 2019
site-specific audio installation, fabric, metal rail, stage modules, loudspeaker on stand, 24:50 loop

300 x 1400 x 500 cm (dimensions variable)

DAYS IN BETWEEN (KAISERPANORAMA), 2019
single-channel 16mm film with optical sound, b/w, 04:12 loop

metal plinth, freehanging projection screen, fabric

DAYS IN BETWEEN II, 2019
two-channel synchronized 16mm film, silent, color & b/w, 12:58 loop

metal plinths, free-hanging projection screens, fabric

STILL LIFE (ARA), 2019
single-channel film, 16mm and archival footage digitally transferred, silent, 22:13 loop

hantarex monitor, media player, cement plinth, led-panels, color
filters

120 x 60 x 60 cm

4/5 MARTIE 1977, 2019
archival photographs, geologic findings, custom-made metal structures, cement plinth

100 x 250 x 250 cm

AMBER, 2019
stage lighting, 19th c. taxidermic glass eyes

dimensions variable

STILL RETRIEVING, 2019
3 silkscreen prints framed, 73 x 65 cm each
wavelength on wall, vinyl, 550 x 50 cm

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