In the previous semester, attention was devoted to leftover images and their unexpressed potential, both within the exploration of montage from a theoretical and experimental perspective and the broader investigation of editing as a radical narrative technique that exceeds the cinematic frame.

Scholar Kajri Jain defines images as bodies that move, “they travel from their place of origin to where they are sold, consumed, used, displayed, or watched. (…) They act on bodies and create relations between bodies”(Jain, 2007, 218-219). Case studies show how revolutions and protest movements started, and spread transnationally, not only because of but also supported by visual triggers that leaked from authorities’ control, boosting civil anger. Or, conversely, didn’t succeed when pieces of evidence were confiscated and disappeared. Whereas circulation is at the basis of images' existence, preservation, and empathic bonds with observers, enframement is one of the counter effects. Enframement is used to define the various ways in which an image is foregrounded or separated from its general environmental surroundings. It could refer to a frame of reference, language in the form of the caption, or a device. Enframement reaches its highest level on the social networks as digital archives, but it is also the result of a selection in the composition of an image, according to the story that it is supposed to convey.

Can images as bodies truly move without carrying their history, background, and intentions? What gets lost, and what is gained across the journeys?

The seminar will focus on these entities in motion, enframed but carrying a story, and montage as a moment of revelation. Within this context, how does montage as an organizing thought contribute to reframe, and while doing so, to apologize, heal, and eventually repair?

If the act of editing is a narrative model, can it be done collectively?

The theory seminar will develop across readings, analyses of case studies, also proposed by participants, and visits to film festivals, exhibitions, and studio visits with artists. Readings will be provided throughout the seminar.

IMPORTANT: Although the Summer seminar is a continuation of the previous one, each and everyone interested in the topics is very welcome to attend, no previous knowledge required.

Jain, K. & Thomas, N. (2007). Gods in the Bazaar: The Economies of Indian Calendar Art. New York, USA: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822389736

Readings:

Kodwo Eshun & Ros Gray (2011) The Militant Image: A Ciné‐Geography, Third Text, 25:1, 1-12, DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2011.545606. 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09528822.2011.545606

Favero, Paolo S H, The Present Image. Visible Stories in a Digital Habitat, Palgrave Mcmillan, 2018 (selected chapters).

Didi-Huberman, Georges, Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz, Chicago Univerisyt Press, 2012 (selected chapters).

and others

Case studies:

- Angela Ricci Lucchi and Yervant Giankian, selection of films

-„Havarie“ (2016), by Philipp Scheffner

- „Negotiating amnesia“ (2015), by Alessandra Ferrini

- Tabita Rezeire, selection of works

-„Why do you ask?“, (2015) by Héla Ammar

- „Asit“ (2022), by Pinar Ogrenci

and others