MARIANNA CHRISTOFIDES

DAYS IN BETWEEN

In accordance to generic tropes in the way the Balkans are represented, conflicts in the region are repeatedly ‘naturalized’ in their description, and attributed geological-seismological features. With the essay film Days In Between Marianna Christofides and her collaborator Bernd Bräunlich recursively visited the Balkans between 2011 and 2015, at first seeking out littoral borders where the course of the boundary remains indefinite. Rivers as invisible yet politically instrumental borders was one of the initial narrative strands. Having lost the first few years worth of audiovisual material, the data on the hard drive being unretrievable, they decided to return, only to find that the places no longer existed in the same way. Both topography and social fabric in ceaseless flux. Their approach extended accordingly, now focusing on loss, omissions, obfuscation and disappearance. The appropriation of nature’s workings in political discourse came to the fore. As did the filmmaker’s inhibiting yet empowering fringe location. Through a reflective lens of doubt agency was re-calibrated. The project grew wider in a recurring attempt at approaching, and began to expand, up until the present and in multiple iterations. Within this non-finite process the constant failure, and the beginning anew, became integral parts of the narrative.

Biography

Marianna Christofides is an artist, filmmaker and researcher from Cyprus based in Berlin. Her practice revolves around questions concerning entangled narratives and imprints of slow violence in the spatial fabric. Subtle manifestations of precarity are negotiated in long-term filmic observations. Christofides’ work has been exhibited in venues like the Venice Biennale, Akademie der Künste Berlin, Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka.