(RE)CONNECT

(Re)connect presents ten films by artists and filmmakers that engage with historical narratives and collective cultures of memory. They explore the knowledge embedded in myths and songs, in oral traditions, and inherited wisdom. The films convey this culturally endangered heritage while simultaneously opening our eyes to new possible pathways toward the future. From the very beginning, moving images and the development of cinema have played a crucial role in the representation of history and everyday perception across all cultures. The depiction of time and space has become an essential component of storytelling. Cinematography today is a language that shapes our understanding of real and imagined moments. The artists featured in the exhibition blur the boundaries between fiction and reality by creating striking visual worlds and expansive soundscapes, where genres like science fiction, experimental cinema, documentary film, and video art intersect. In doing so, they sharpen awareness of complex historical contexts and often overlooked legacies while fostering a sense of community and collective narrative. The supernatural and the slipping away from reality give rise to stories in these films, where animism and illusion permeate the landscapes. For artists like Patricia Domínguez, Ursula Biemann, and Dorota Gawęda & Eglė Kulbokaitė, their works transcend the boundaries between spiritual and parallel worlds (quantum realms). In doing so, they connect traditional knowledge with contemporary science, where life exists at the threshold between the living and the dead. Others, such as Tai Shani and Laura Huertas Millán, engage with botany, using plants and fungi as visions for society, from which new futures may emerge. In the ten films and video works of (Re)connect, nature serves both as a stage and an actor. Traditional narratives—whether from indigenous communities, ancient mythologies, or Slavic folklore—reveal how people across cultures relate to their landscapes. Yet the landscape is not merely a backdrop but a character with its own agency, shaping the plot of the cinematic works. At the same time, the protagonists of these films confront the past and their inherited traumas. They question dominant, one-dimensional constructions of the relationships between nature and culture, men and women, ecology and technology. /// Ursula Biemann: Forest Mind, 2021 (31 min.) Set in the Amazonian forests of Colombia, Forest Mind explores the intelligence of nature through both scientific and indigenous perspectives. The film examines plant-human relationships, the metaphysics of plants, and how life stores information, blending modern science with shamanic knowledge. By bridging these worldviews, it challenges colonial histories and highlights the importance of decolonizing indigenous knowledge, connecting it with fields such as plant neurobiology, ethnobotany, and quantum biology. Juliana Curi:UÝRA – The Rising Forest, 2022 (72 min.) UÝRA – The Rising Forest follows Uýra, an Indigenous artist and biologist, on a journey through the Amazon. They use performance art and ancestral wisdom to empower Indigenous youth while confronting racism, transphobia, and violence against nature. Transforming into Uýra Sodoma, a being adorned with plant elements and embodying the voice of the forest, they weave art and activism to preserve the Amazon and reclaim pre-colonial values. Patricia Domínguez: Three Moons Below (Tres Lunas más Abajo), 2023/24 (53:53 min.) Three Moons Below explores the space between the spiritual and parallel realities, blending ancestral knowledge with modern science. The film follows a protagonist and her robotic bird companion as they journey through mystical portals created by the convergence of CERN experiments and ancient petroglyphs found in the Atacama Desert. Along the way, they encounter various beings and gain abilities inspired by celestial and earthly energies. The film reflects Domínguez's research into ethnobotany and South American plant-healing traditions, offering a vision of interconnected existence. Dorota Gawęda & Eglė Kulbokaitė: Brood (Scene 5), 2024 (35 min.) Brood (Scene 5) is the latest video in the Brood series, featuring Isokratisses' polyphonic singing by women in collaboration with sound producer OXHY. It draws inspiration from the mirologi, a traditional form of mourning songs performed at gravesites in Epirus, a historically disputed region on the Greek-Albanian border. The main character, the Upiór—a vampiric figure from Slavic folklore said to harbor two souls—serves as a bridge between the worlds of the living and the dead, embodying songs that weave together cultural traditions, especially those preserved and passed down by women, deeply connected to their land and environment. One of the songs featured in the work, Touti Yis Leni Mou, reflects: This earth, my Leni / This earth we walk on / We all enter in it...This earth with the flowers / Eats young women and girls / This earth with the violets / Eats old women like candies. Laura Huertas Millán: Jíibie, 2019 (25 min.) Jíibie is part of a series exploring the coca plant and its misunderstood history. Originating in the Andes of South America, the coca plant is often linked to cocaine production, yet its significance extends far beyond this association. The film focuses on the Muiná-Muruí community in the Colombian Amazon, showcasing their ritual of making mambe, a green coca powder referred to as Jíibie. For this community, the coca leaf is viewed as a sacred, feminine entity, not merely a product for exploitation. Through their rituals and the myth surrounding the creation of mambe, the film reveals the respect and care the community holds for the plant, challenging the misconceptions and criminalization that have overshadowed its true cultural and spiritual importance. Katarzyna Machałek & Łukasz Machowski: Day and Night (Dzień i Noc), 2022 (89 min.) Set in the mysterious forests of East Poland, Day and Night explores themes of folklore, female solidarity, mythical status attributed to women, and aging through a blend of fiction and documentary. The film constantly shifts between past and present, creating a sense of duality. Told from a female perspective, it celebrates strength and unity of women through communal singing. Shirin Neshat: Mahdokht (Women without Men Series), 2004 (14 min.) Mahdokht (Women without Men Series) tells a magical and haunting story of a woman torn between her fear of sexuality and her longing for fertility. Seeking escape from societal pressures, Mahdokht retreats to a lush, mystical garden in the desert, where she transforms into a tree to bear fruit and spread her seed. Through surreal imagery and Persian myths, the film explores themes of oppression, self-determination, and freedom, reflecting the struggles of women in a patriarchal society. Inspired by Shahrnush Parsipur's banned novel, *Women Without Men*, it weaves folklore and magic into a poignant tale of resistance and transformation. Rachel Rose: Wil-o-Wisp, 2018 (10:6 min.) Wil-o-Wisp follows Elspeth Blake, a mystic and healer, over three decades in 17th-century agrarian England—a time of spiritual and societal upheaval. Beginning in 1570, Elspeth is a wife and mother whose daughter’s actions lead to grave consequences. By 1603, she has become a mystic practicing healing through transference but faces persecution as she is accused of witchcraft. The film unfolds in a world where spiritual beliefs and mystical practices intertwine with the harsh realities of the privatization of communal land, reshaping society into the early industrial era. Through vivid tableaux, Rose explores themes of transformation, magic, and the clash between ancient traditions and a changing world. Tai Shani: The Neon Hieroglyph, 2021 (57:25 min.) In The Neon Hieroglyph, Tai Shani combines her research on ergot, a psychedelic fungus, with the mythology of the Maiara—flying witches from Alicudi, a remote Italian island. Historically, the impoverished population of the island unknowingly consumed rye contaminated with ergot, which caused hallucinations similar to those induced by LSD. The Maiara, depicted as positive and socially important witch figures, would paint their bodies and fly to steal from the rich. This narrative contrasts with typical European witch lore and offers a powerful story of resistance against hardship. The film is divided into nine episodes and features a hypnotic soundtrack by Maxwell Sterling. Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser): As Grand As What , 2021 (16:50 min.) As Grand As What unfolds between Mount Vesuvius and the Indian Himalayas, following a search for a lost life force bla a term from Tibetan medicine symbolizing the energy that connects all living things. Disguised as earth spirits, the artists perform five rituals to reactivate the planet's energy centers, using sound, poetry, and elemental practices to reconnect with nature.