SIB VIII – Cinema of Cockaigne

On the one hand, the fantasy of plenty, expressed in the medieval myth of ‘The Land of Cockaigne’ serves as a departure for exploring the subversive potential of abundance, affliction and aspiration in selected artists’ moving image works. Rooted in the mundane and reveling in the grotesque masquerade of unfulfilled desire, the Cinema of Cockaigne is a shameless site for excessive imagination. On the other, Cockaigne as an imaginary place of fullness, here becomes a projection that – by means of inversion – reflects back on the shortcomings of personal, social, political transformation.

Screening:

anorak & Tupac Cruz, untitled (Well), (video appropriated), 2018/2022, 4‘30‘‘
zuum hiperlinque, sinfonia para impasse (excerpt), 2016 , 0‘26‘‘
John Smith in collaboration with composer Jocelyn Pook, Blight, 1996, 15‘
Rosa Aiello, Il Sangue che Sorga Dall’Orgoglio del Leone, 2021, 6‘25‘‘
Frances Glessner Lee, Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death
(video appropriated), 2014, 2‘41‘‘
Rosa Aiello, Always Directed by Tiffany, 2015, 1‘
Jamie Crewe, False Wife, 2022, 15‘
James Richards, Qualities of Life: Living In the Radiant Cold, 2022, 18‘

Cinema of Cockaigne is the 8th edition of Seeing Is Believing, anorak’s monthly screening and conversation series presenting artists’ moving image. The programme was shown on 9 November 2022 at Apartment Project in Berlin as part of Chromatic Wednesdays.