Closed World
A four-part film program presented in conjunction with Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions at the Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston, Texas.
To coincide with Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions, Innocent Ekejiuba and Erika Mei Chua Holum co-curate a four-part film program entitled Closed World. The film program is designed as four exercises in healing, encompassing grief, memory/remembrance, resilience, and rebuilding/recovery. The four-part exercises build and unbuild a “closed world” progressively and collaboratively, through community participation. Accordingly, the exercises are designed as a generative system which replicates multiple environments including the home, the theater, and the gallery space. A ‘closed-world’ or ‘closed-loop system’ examines the earth as a whole—as a complete and interconnected system. The Closed World film program will be held in venues in Texas (Blaffer Art Museum, Houston; The Contemporary, Austin), Indonesia (inaugural Friendship Pavilion in 900mdpl biennale in Kaliurang, Yogyakarta, in collaboration with curators Mira Asriningtyas and Dito Yuwono); and in Peru (Proyecto AMIL, Lima). Expanding the community conversation of the exercises, each venue additionally invites artists as part of the film programs.
A closed world is built and unbuilt through the progression of the four-part exercises and the community’s participation. The film program is predicated on the credo that it is not enough to talk about healing or grief, a complete healing process must be undertaken as a community in order to ensure that rebirth happens on a communal scale.
Exercise in Grieving
Wednesday, October 30, 2024 from 6:30–8:00pm
Location: The Contemporary, Austin
Friday, November 8, 2024 from 5:30pm
Location: Blaffer Art Museum
Chan Teik Quan, Weeping Birds, 2018
Pooja Gurung & Bibhusan Basnet, DADYAA: The Woodpeckers of Rotha, 2018
Saige Kanik, After We’re Gone, 2024
Runo Lagomarsino, Yo también soy humo (I am also smoke), 2020
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, The Class, 2005
Exercise of Remembrance and Memory
Sunday, November 10, 2024 from 3:00–4:30pm
Location: The Contemporary, Austin
Friday, December 6, 2024 from 2pm
Location: Blaffer Art Museum
Aline Baiana, At that time when everything was human, 2016
Martha Colburn, Western Wild … or How I Found Wanderlust and Met Old Shatterhand, 2017
Chitra Ganesh, Silhouette in the Graveyard, 2018
Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Invalid Throne, 2018
Thania Petersen, KASSARAM, 2020
Sriwhana Spong, Beach Study, 2012
Exercise in Resilience
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 from 6:30–8:00pm
Location: The Contemporary, Austin
Friday, January 24, 2025 from 5:30pm
Location: Blaffer Art Museum
Nguyen Phuong Linh, Memory of the Blind Elephant, 2016
Nguyen Trinh Thi, How to Improve the World, 2021
Wang Tuo, The Interrogation, 2017
Exercise of Rebuilding and Recovery
Sunday, November 24, 2024 from 3:00–4:30pm
Location: The Contemporary, Austin
Friday, February 7, 2025 from 2pm
Location: Blaffer Art Museum
Heba Amin, As Bird’s Flying, 2016
Caroline Déodat, Landslides, 2020
Rahima Gambo, Instruments of Air, 2020
Laurent Montaron, What remains is future, 2006
Eusebio Siosi, Sueños de Jepira (Dreams of Jepira), 2022