Metempsychosis
(This event has passed)

Theme:
Format:
Date:
May 8–12, 2017
Organized by: Cimatheque
Venue: Cimatheque
Address: 19A ‘Adly Street Floor 5, Apt. 28, Downtown Cairo, Egypt
Admission: Course cost: 650 LE
Event Language: English, Arabic subtitles
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/725002724344147/


“Metempsychosis: eyes in the back of our head” is a 4-day research workshop about memory, archives and ideas on reincarnation, taking place in Cimatheque from May 7th to May 11th, 2017.

In this 4-day research workshop, we are inviting you to bring old rolls (3 max) of any kind of celluloid motion picture film (Super 8, 9,5mm, 16mm, 35mm) and get inspired by it, in order to make a new something.

Our starting point is a question on the essence and flow of time. Time has no meaning and indicates nothing by itself. It is a socially constructed concept and serves the needs of the communities that use it. The way they use it allows to express fears, hopes and inner nature. Additionally, we cannot feel time’s passage with the five senses: we cannot touch, see, hear, smell or taste time passing by. Still we know it’s passed. The most reliable tool we have in order to prove this passage is a very quirky one: our memory. Stimulated in the past by stories, buildings, paintings or other objects, very recently memory has also been determined by photography. 

Even though analogue film has a dubious future, people have been using photography for more than 100 years now, establishing celluloid’s huge role in modern visual culture. Working with and consuming analogue images has deeply influenced our understanding of light, time, space and, as years pass by, memory. Not only our collective memory of major events of the 20th century is shaped by images captured on celluloid but also our personal reminiscences: objects, places and people who don’t exist anymore, stories of our family and stories we have never been told. 

Cimatheque invites you to explore the past and convert it into now. 

First of all, we will scan in 2K your material in order to introduce you to the principles of archiving and to question the reasons why it is a priority today. 

Then you will be invited to discuss your ideas collectively in the direction of re-appropriating and reflecting on your found footage -or the found footage of your colleagues. We will share our feelings and thoughts on the creative process and get inspired by existing works (films, paintings, writings etc). 

Next, during the production phase, you will be free and encouraged to experiment with different media and the team of Cimatheque will provide digital and /or analogue equipment and technical support to the extent of our capabilities. 

The results will be presented in the premises of Cimatheque during the last day of the workshop. 

Additionally, on Friday the 11th of May in the screening hall of Cimatheque, all the participants will get a free entrance to the screening of “Memories of a private eye” by Rania Stephan, a film made entirely of found footage and personal archive material, programmed in the frame of our focus on Arab Documentary Film. 

This is an open call to anybody who has old films on celluloid but also to artists, filmmakers, performers or researchers who are working on the themes of memory and /or time. In case you want to get involved but don’t have archival footage, get in touch with us and we will provide you with some from the Cimatheque’s archive.

The workshop will be mentored by Theofanis Dalezios assisted by Maged Nader.
Participation fee: 650LE
Language: English. Live Arabic translation will be provided if necessary

Dates 08-12 May 2017 
Application deadline: 6th of May 2017, 13:00

To apply, please send a paragraph explaining the reasons why you are interested in the workshop, along with a short bio to: 
Maged@cimatheque.org