19.5. klo 19
BODIES OF WORK AND REST
Kino Caisa: I Don't Dream of Labour
Short film series on capitalism, labour and the futures we dream of.
‘Bodies of Work and Rest’ is the first evening of the ‘I Don’t Dream of Labour’-film programme. The programme explores our relationship to work, capitalism and power through screenings of short- to mid-length films.
How does capitalism take hold of our lives and bodies? Can we resist being fundamentally moulded by it?
By thinking about the body as a fundamental site of capitalist exploitation, we can examine the insidious ways in which we are affected by it. We are put at risk, expected to endure harm and forced to shrink our needs to meet those of the machine clogging on. But these films also offer an opening – to tune in to ourselves, pay attention, slow down and resist. The screening is followed by a panel discussion.
URANIUM HEX / Sandra Lahire, UK 1987. 11 mins.
The film deals with uranium mining in Canada focusing particularly on the woman’s work and the destruction of the environment. The film uses a kaleidoscopic array of experimental techniques such as superimposition, re-filming, changes of speed, pace and an elaborate layering of sounds where ‘atmos’ recording mixes with voices, music.
HEROINE OF POST-SOCIALIST LABOUR / Mare Tralla, Estonia 2004. 4 mins.
Mare Tralla revisits the classic socialist myth of women as work heroines, drawing on documentary archives of the Soviet era. After the fall of Communism, the classical images of milkmaids, factory workers, and tractor drivers gave way to capitalist images of feminine beauty and supermodel-like bodies. Tralla compares both models and the efforts they involve.
WOMAN AT REST / Paola Jalili, Finland 2024. 13 mins.
When your workplace is not a physical site but your own body, taking a break from work is not always an option. For the artist, the freelancer, the precarious worker, the limits between life and work dissolve like foam in water. Can they ever be on holiday?
IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS / Hicham Gardaf, Morocco 2024. 17 mins.
In the face of the global economic and technological forces reshaping the city of Tangier, the profession of the bleach vendors seems to be on the verge of disappearance, yet this filmic portrait conveys acoustic and visual images of endurance. In Praise of Slowness speaks to the accelerated urbanisation and industrialisation of Tangier, but also attests to how locally situated choreographies of slowness articulate modes of resistance to the speed of capitalism.
RESISTANCE MEDITATION / Sarah Wylie, Canada 2024. 4,5 mins.
Bending space and temporality, Sara Wylie envisions a world where time is reimagined outside of capitalism’s agenda of productivity and non-disabled norms. A pulsing and evocative meditation on agency found through stillness and crip time.
All works contain English subtitles. The screening is followed by a panel discussion with Vishnu Vardhani Rajan, facilitated by Adalmiina Erkkola. The panel discussion will take place in English.
Vishnu Vardhani Rajan is a body philosopher whose practice spans performance, poetry, movement, stand-up comedy, and film. Over a decade, they have built community-centred work at the intersection of night politics, conflict-presence, food, and mental health with a particular focus on how these forces shape the body. Their current project traces the unexpected link between Chinese beauty parlors in India and nail salons in Finland, and what this reveals about the economies of migration, at the most intimate scale and the geopolitical one.
Adalmiina Erkkola is a cultural producer interested in the political potential of film and sound. Their curatorial practice is built on interrogating memories and archives, and building capacities to imagine the future anew. They currently host the No Man’s Land radio show at IDA Helsinki, where they platform music by women and nonbinary artists.
