Archival Assembly #3

The “Archival Assembly” festival by Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art is dedicated to presenting those relatively unknown gems of cinematic history which lie hidden away in archives around the world. In particular, it focuses on transnational and decolonial cinematic practices. Following the first two editions of the festival featuring films from the Global South, the third edition highlights the cinematic heritage of Eastern Europe and Central Asia and examines the role of sound and language in film. In the political context of production, this aspect is especially revealing. In the Soviet Union, for example, the archived documentary films from the Soviet socialist republics were almost entirely redubbed in Russian.

In the programme’s spotlight are a number of Uzbek silent films from the 1920s, which Arsenal has restored in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut in Tashkent. Uzbek cinematic and narrative art was flourishing at the time, but increasingly became subjugated by the cinematic policies of the Soviet Union. In addition to contemporary films, the festival will present silent movies with scores performed by musicians from Berlin and Tashkent. An exhibition will present sounds from the film archives, while another will illuminate the power apparatus surrounding language in cinema based on material from the Arsenal archive. A symposium organised in cooperation with the University of Frankfurt will offer audiences insight into film history and archival work. In the series “Found Futures” in the Sinema Transtopia, artists, curators and researchers will present their latest projects.

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: Gaga Chkheidze, Matthias Krings, Oksana Sarkisova and others
Festival: Kino Arsenal/silent green/SINEMA TRANSTOPIA/Hopscotch Reading Room/Hörbar migas, Berlin: 16–22 Sep. 2024