Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez on Delphine Seyrig / Mounira Al Solh
Mounira Al Solh, ‘à la santé des alliés’ (2003–2016), video still. Courtesy the artist.
As part of If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution’s introductions to the artists and researchers of VII (2017–2018), Social Movement, we are pleased to welcome you to the EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam on Friday 15 December for an introduction to Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez’s research on Delphine Seyrig and a screening of ‘à la santé des allies’ by Mounira Al Solh.
The afternoon will begin at 2pm with Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez’s introduction to her contemporary reading and reactivation of the video work of French actress, video maker, and renowned feminist activist Delphine Seyrig (1932–1990).
Central to the project is Seyrig’s unrealised black and white silent feature film on the supposed letters of American frontierswoman Calamity Jane to her daughter (first edited by Jean Hickok McCormick in 1949). Commenced in the late seventies, across her years of work towards the film’s production, Seyrig first involved Babette Mangolte as camerawoman for research footage produced during a visit to Billings, Montana, and later the artist Etel Adnan to produce a text. The relationship between a mother and daughter was at the heart of Seyrig’s interest in this story, and is something that she additionally explored as an actress in Chantal Akerman’s film ‘Letters Home’ (1986).
For the introduction to her research project, Petrešin-Bachelez will consider the legacy of Seyrig’s life and elaborate on her interest in this paternal relationship through screening excerpts of Mangolte’s rushes and Akerman’s film, alongside Seyrig’s own video works ‘Inês’ (1974), ‘S.C.U.M Manifesto’ (1976), and ‘Maso et miso vont en bateau’ (1976) which were made individually or in collaboration with Carole Roussopoulos, Nadja Ringart, and Ioana Wieder.
Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez’s project is part of a larger commission initiated by Centre audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir (Paris), on which she is working with the art historian Giovanna Zapperi. The project with If I Can’t Dance will also include a collaboration with the choreographer Eszter Salamon on the development of a new work.
To conclude the afternoon, at 4pm the artist Mounira Al Solh will screen her video ‘à la santé des allies’ (2003–2016), duration 33:34 minutes.
‘à la santé des allies’, which translates as « to the health of allies », recounts the potentially endless variations of the beginning of a film. Through this, the film narrates layers of sub-stories and parallel events in Lebanon and Syria during the pan-Arab Nasserites movements of the 1950s and 1960s. Told from the different perspective of the artist’s relatives, each person’s opinion and recollection of the same political or social incident begin to contradict each other, to mix up events both personal and political, and to reveal time as three-dimensional rather than linear.
Admission to the screening is €5-.
Tickets are sold as a double bill and include admission to the presentation on Delphine Seyrig by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez and the screening of ‘à la santé des allies’ by Mounira Al Solh.
These presentations are the final event of an unfolding programme of introductions to the artists and researchers of VII (2017–2018), Social Movement, which see the commissioned artists present an existing work and the Performance in Residence researchers an introduction to their project. These events have taken place each month—across September, October, November and December—in various locations in Amsterdam.
The programme of If I Can’t Dance is financially supported by the Mondriaan Fund, the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, the AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts), and Ammodo. If I Can’t Dance is a member of Corpus and Performance Platform.
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