Resounding Archives

The "Archival Assembly" festival organised by Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art is dedicated to international film archives as a living creative space for the future of cinema. It focuses in particular on transnational and decolonial practices of film work. The third issue examines the role of sound and language in the archiving and presentation of international film history. The programme questions the dominance of the image in dealing with the medium of film, which also characterises the examination of film heritage. At the centre are film narratives, language versions and oral history. What gaps arise when only the sound or only the image of a film survives in the archive? 

The film programme will show new restorations as well as newly produced film prints, which will also allow the progress of archive projects to be traced over longer periods of time. Films will be shown in various presentation formats, images will be dubbed live on location or a digital restoration will be presented with a sequence contained only in the sound negative. Part of the future Arsenal offices will be transformed into a one-off exhibition space where installations on the theme will be presented. In collaboration with the Goethe University Frankfurt, a symposium with the subtitle "Resounding Archives" will take place in the domed hall of silent green. As part of the "Found Futures" series, participants will present projects, ideas and questions relating to precarious archives and archive finds at SINEMA TRANSTOPIA. Listening sessions in the Listening Bar migas present historical and current audio recordings.

Artistic director/head curator: Stefanie Schulte Strathaus
Curators: Vinzenz Hediger, Markus Ruff, Barbara Wurm
Educational programme: Erica Carter, Tamer El Said, Matěj Strnad, Ala Younis
Artists: Didi Cheeka, Tony Conrad, Saodat Ismailova, Susanne Sachsse and others
Panelists: Matthias Krings, Erika Balsom, Petna Ndaliko Katondolo u.a.

Festival: Kino Arsenal/silent green/SINEMA TRANSTOPIA/Hopscotch Reading Room/Hörbar migas, Berlin: 17–22 Sep. 2024