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Among Houses and the Cosmos
Among Houses and the Cosmos is a sensuous meditation on people, their living spaces and beliefs. It contains many scenes with people engaged in some ritual action: burning something; writing something on a piece of paper; pointing out that one card in the fan held out to them; throwing beans on a table; reading the lines in an empty coffee cup. The film takes the viewers to many different places, but offers no information as to where they are. It is exactly in this radical refusal to disclose the particulars of the rituals that the film opens up a space to ponder larger themes.
Banović made a film about the video footage she brought with her from her many travels in Europe, Africa and Latin-America. The footage itself – the material residue of the filmmaker’s impulses to take the camera and push the button – is allowed to speak. In other words, the images speak of the filmmaker. She does not speak about them. The voices in the film are intricately interwoven threads of culture, power, politics, and history. It provokes critical questions about the way of being-in-the-world, occupying time, and regaining autonomy of life.
Koštana Banović
Koštana Banović is visual artist and filmmaker. She was born in Sarajevo in former Yugoslavia. She studied at the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU), Faculty of Fine Arts and Design in Utrecht in the Netherlands, where she currently teaches. She has regularly worked in countries like Cuba, Senegal, Angola, Brazil and Caribbean where she has developed video-art projects with local communities. Throughout her oeuvre – drawings, performances, films – Koštana Banović never hesitated to engage in rituals as a means to reduce the distance between Self and the Other, represented by the cultures encountered during her many travels. The travels have shown that the Other was to be found within, as a disturbing yet inextricable part of Self. Taking part in and researching ritual as a means of getting in touch with oneself and others is a recurring element in her work. Her oeuvre researches the boundaries of modern visual anthropology, documentary and fine art.
Filmography
Among Houses and the Cosmos, 2016
Mijn God, 2012 (14 channel-installation)
For Dead or Alive, 2011
Roos, 2011
Exu, 2011
May I Enter, 2010
Oxum, 2009
Ploha, 2008
Sey, the Economy of Love, 2007
NaTragu, 2001
Dream Hunters, 2000
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Film Details:
Netherlands, 2016, 75’
no dialogues
Director & Writer: Koštana Banović
Producer: Koštana Banović
Director of Photography: Koštana Banović
Editor: Koštana Banović
Sound: Koštana Banović