During the seminar we will read and discuss three texts and watch a short film in conversation with Geology of Separation. The aim is to explore ways in which the perceptions and sensibilities prompted by Geology of Separation might contribute to an analytical vocabulary for cultural critique: one that does not see migration or the condition of living in the interstices of the nation-state order as an exceptional limbo and a condition to be corrected, but as a mundane aesthetic and everyday experience of living in ruins from which imaginaries of coexistence can be reassembled. What do you do when compelled to wait for something that might never materialize? How do we imagine the loss of things that never were?

7 November 2024, 13:00–17:00
Cittipunkt e.V., Brüsseler Str. 36a, 13353 Berlin

Ali Hussein AlAdawy is a curator, researcher, editor, writer, and critic of moving images and cultural history. He curated a number of film programs and seminars, working particularly on urban space and images of labor. He was one of the founders of Tripod, an online magazine for film and moving image critique (2015–2017), and was part of the editorial team of TarAlbahr, an online platform and publication for urban and art practices in Alexandria (2015–2018). He has completed an MA at the intersection of human rights and contemporary art at Bard College, New York.

Territories of Paranational Cinema is a cooperation between Kulturwissenschaftliche Filmforschung at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the SNSF-funded research project Paranational Cinema – Legacies and Practices at the Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich. The program has been organized by Brigitta Kuster (HU) and Philip Widmann (UZH) and is supported by a strategic partnership grant from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.