Release Date: January 29, 2016

Sights and Sounds: Global Film and Video Exhibition Series Concludes

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Highlights from All 25 Featured Countries on View Beginning February 5

New York, NY - The Jewish Museum's exhibition series Sights and Sounds: Global Film and Video concludes with a five-month presentation of highlighted works, featuring one film from each of the 25 participating countries, on view from February 5 to June 30, 2016. As an overview of the series, this presentation will provide a global perspective on the current state of contemporary video art and draw connections between works from opposite ends of the world.

A number of works address the constant tension in today's world between the traditional and the new, as in Studio Revolt + Khmer Arts' Neang Neak (Serpent Goddess), which juxtaposes contemporary and ancient storytelling techniques. Many works investigate community, as in Regina Parra's 7,536 Steps (For a Geography of Proximity), which explores the immigrant communities on the outskirts of São Paulo in Brazil; Salomé Lamas' A Comunidade (The Community), which tells the insular history of the oldest trailer park in Portugal; and Nevin Aladağ's Hochparterre (Mezzanine), an audio portrait of residents in the diverse Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin. Environmental concerns are also addressed in several works, including Ranbir Kaleka's Forest, which uses the forest as a metaphor for self-knowledge, and Ishu Han's Return, a reaction to the devastating 2011 tsunami in eastern Japan that explores humanity's relationship to the sea.

Politics and history are additional themes that appear throughout. Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan's Pacta Sunt Servanda (Agreements Must Be Kept) explores Transylvania's history as a subject of dispute between its resident Romanians and ethnic Hungarians. Eliana Otta's Refundación (Refounding) imagines the destruction of Peru's colonial past and its tumultuous political history. Chen Shaoxiong's Ink Media is a selective documentary based on photographs of recent protests staged around the world. Exterminio (Annihilation) by Edgardo Aragón is a poetic recreation of 1970s military "death flights," in which traditional drinking gourds are used as stand-ins for murdered rebels and political opponents.

Since November 2013, the Jewish Museum's Sights and Sounds has presented 100 new works selected by twenty-five curators from around the world, introducing New York audiences to the latest developments in filmmaking within the art context worldwide. Each curator selected new film and video works from their respective regions - including Argentina, Vietnam, Angola, Israel, China, and others . Their selections are screened for one month each in the Museum's newly refurbished media center, which has been transformed into a miniature cinema. The works in Sights and Sounds touch on themes significant to both Jewish culture and universal human experience, including spirituality, exile, language, conflict, family, humor, and history. A full list of participating curators follows below.

Sights and Sounds curators and highlighted works (in alphabetical order by country):

Angola (Jun 2014), curated by Suzana Sousa

Highlight: Iris Buchholz Chocolate, Os sonhos do embondeiro (Baobab's Dreams), 2012

 

Argentina (Oct 2015), curated by Inés Katzenstein

Highlight: Leticia Obeid, Dobles (Doubles), 2013

 

Australia (Dec 2014), curated by Wayne Tunnicliffe

Highlight: Angelica Mesiti, Some Dance to Remember, Some Dance to Forget, 2012

 

Brazil (Feb 2014), curated by Luiza Proença

Highlight: Regina Parra, 7,536 Steps (For a Geography of Proximity), 2012

 

Cambodia (Nov 2013 - Jan 2014), curated by Erin Gleeson

Highlight: Studio Revolt + Khmer Arts, Neang Neak (Serpent Goddess), 2012

 

Canada (May 2014), curated by Melanie O'Brian

Highlight: Robert Arndt , A Line Meant in Passing, 2010

 

China (Jul 2014), curated by Carol Yinghua Lu

Highlight: Chen Shaoxiong, Ink Media, 2011-13

 

Colombia (Dec 2015), curated by Juan A. Gaitán

Highlight: Oscar Muñoz, Distopía (Dystopia), 2014

 

Cuba (Jul 2015), curated by Mailyn Machado

Highlight: Vanessa Portieles and Yanelvis González, Afuera (The Other Side), 2012

 

Hungary (Apr 2015), curated by Tijana Stepanović

Highlight: Katarina Sević and Tehnica Schweiz, Gasium et Circenses (Gas and Circuses), 2013

 

India (Jun. 2015), curated by Nancy Adajania

Highlight: Ranbir Kaleka, Forest, 2012

 

Israel (Aug 2014), curated by Chen Tamir

Highlight: Mika Rottenberg, Sneeze, 2012

 

Japan (Jan 2016), curated by Yukie Kamiya

Highlight: Ishu Han, Return, 2011

 

Mexico (Mar 2015), curated by María Inés Rodríguez

Highlight: Edgardo Aragón, Exterminio (Annihilation), 2014

 

New Zealand (Aug. 2015), curated by Natasha Conland

Highlight: Shannon Te Ao, Two Shoots That Stretch Far Out, 2013-14

 

Nigeria (May 2015), curated by Jude Anogwih

Highlight: Uche Okpa-Iroha, The Plantation Boy, 2012

 

Peru (Apr 2014), curated by Miguel A. López

Highlight: Eliana Otta, Refundación (Refounding), 2011

 

Philippines (Sept 2015), curated by Joselina Cruz

Highlight: Martha Atienza, Anito, 2012

 

Poland (Nov 2014), curated by Joanna Warsza

Highlight: Karolina Breguła, Offence, 2013

 

Portugal (Sept. 2014), curated by Miguel Amado

Highlight: Salomé Lamas, A Comunidade (The Community), 2012

 

Romania (Mar 2014), curated by Daria Ghiu

Highlight: Anca Benera and Arnold Estefan, Pacta Sunt Servanda (Agreements Must Be Kept), 2012

 

Singapore (Oct. 2014), curated by Patrick D. Flores

Highlight: Ho Tzu Nyen, Newton, 2009

 

South Africa (Nov 2015), curated by Josh Ginsburg

Highlight: Dineo Seshee Bopape, is i am sky, 2013

 

Turkey (Jan. 2015), curated by Emre Baykal

Highlight: Nevin Aladağ, Hochparterre (Mezzanine), 2009

 

Vietnam (Feb. 2015), curated by Zoe Butt

Highlight: UuDam Tran Nguyen, Waltz of the Machine Equestrians-The Machine Equestrians, 2012

 

Sights and Sounds: Global Film and Video is organized by Jens Hoffmann, Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Public Programs, and Rebecca Shaykin, Leon Levy Assistant Curator.

About the Jewish Museum

Located on Museum Mile at Fifth Avenue and 92nd Street, the Jewish Museum is one of the world's preeminent institutions devoted to exploring art and Jewish culture from ancient to contemporary, offering intellectually engaging, educational, and provocative exhibitions and programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. The Museum was established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary as the core of a museum collection. Today, the Museum maintains a collection of over 30,000 works of art, artifacts, and broadcast media reflecting global Jewish identity, and presents a diverse schedule of internationally acclaimed temporary exhibitions.

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