IHME Helsinki is organizing a film screening of Indian artist and filmmaker Amar Kanwar in the Bio Rex Hall of Lasipalatsi on Wed 4.5. 18: 00-20: 45

The award-winning artist’s films are now being seen in Finland for the first time. The film screening, which is open to everyone and free of charge, concludes the 2022 IHME Helsinki commissioned work, the Learning from Doubt online course. The artist will be present at the event. Pre-registration is not required to participate in the film screening.

IHME Helsinki 2022 – Learning from Doubt course

Learning from Doubt , which ends in May,   is a ten-week online course based on Kanwar’s long-running and transformative work of art, The Sovereign Forest. The complex The Sovereign Forest  is a creative response to our perceptions of crime, politics, human rights and ecology. Both the validity of poetry as evidence in trial and the discussion of seeing, compassion, justice, and the right to define oneself.

During the weeks, participants from the Learning from Doubt course have become familiar with Kanwar’s production and work through extensive reading, films, and a variety of archival materials and materials. Participants have had the opportunity to ask questions and comment on materials and films in interactive meetings with the artist. The course can be followed through weekly reports written by IHME trainee Eero Karjalainen .

Amar Kanwar’s film screening

Wed 4.5. 18: 00-20: 45, Bio Rex Hall, Lasipalatsi (Mannerheimintie 22–24, 00100 Helsinki)

18.00 – 18.15 Welcome words

IHME’s Executive Director, curator Paula Toppila and artist Amar Kanwar

18.15-18.45 A Season Outside , 1997

30 min

There is perhaps not a single border guard post in the world like Wagah on the Indian-Pakistani border. People gather at the border station every night to watch the ceremony presented by the soldiers. Probably anyone living in the face of conflict can find themselves here.

18.45-18.50  The Face , 2004

5 min

The Face juggles, cuts and accelerates the image of the supreme commander of Burma’s military dictatorship, General Than Shwe, as he continues to throw rose petals at the request of a press photographer at the Gandhi Cremation Memorial in Delhi. The footage of the film was secretly filmed at a ceremony in Rajghat on October 25, 2004. The General had been invited by the Government of India to pay a state visit to India. The film literally reveals the “face” of military representation by focusing the image on the features of the general. The general is known to avoid cameras. Than Shwe’s manic throw of petals in front of the media reveals the tragic ridiculousness of the act, an act repeated in the video criticizing the Indian government’s support for the Burmese army.

18.50-19.00 BREAK

19: 00-20: 25 Such a Morning , 2017  

85 min

The film is a modern parable of the two people’s tacit commitment to the truth.

Originally featured in Documenta 14, Such A Morning navigates a variety of minds in which the characters seek the truth about the depths of darkness through ghost visions. The film follows the disappearance of a respected professor of mathematics at the peak of his career as he retreats into an abandoned train carriage and slowly loses his sight. In the darkness, he experiences hallucinations and insights into his life, as well as the world he documents into the ‘Almanac of Darkness’.

The film seeks sensory and metaphysical ways to understand the difficulties of our time differently. Its narration transports the viewer through the terrains of mathematics, poetry, democracy and fascism, and fear and freedom.

20.25-20.45 Questions for the artist

The language of the films is English and they do not have Finnish subtitles.

The movie screening is open to everyone. No pre-registration.