1395 Days without Red

Šejla Kamerić & Anri Sala
in collaboration with Ari Benjamin Meyers

Forthcoming screenings:

17 - 25 March 2012
Various venues, Sharjah, UAE [details]

Still from 1395 Days without Red, a film by Anri Sala in collaboration with Liria Begeja.
From a project by Šejla Kamerić & Anri Sala in collaboration with Ari Benjamin Meyers Still from 1395 Days without Red, a film by Šejla Kamerić.
From a project by Šejla Kamerić & Anri Sala in collaboration with Ari Benjamin Meyers

1395 Days without Red was conceived, developed and filmed as a collaborative film project by Šejla Kamerić and Anri Sala. The project has given life to two separate films. Šejla Kamerić's film is 65 minutes long, and Anri Sala's film, made in collaboration with Liria Begeja, is 43 minutes long.

An elegant young woman makes her way through an empty city. At every crossing she stops, looks and listens. Should she wait or should she run? Should she wait for others or take the risk on her own?

The city is Sarajevo, and the route the woman takes became known as Sniper Alley during the siege of the city endured by its citizens for 1395 days between 1992 and 1996. The woman, played by Spanish actress Maribel Verdú, is reliving the experience of the trauma of the siege. It is her individual journey through the collective memory of the city.

Throughout the siege, the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra continued to play. In Kamerić and Sala's films, the orchestra rehearses Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony, the Pathetique. The musicians stop and start, repeating different sections of the symphony, just as the woman stops and starts in the city. Hearing the music in her head, she finds the courage to carry on...

The Siege of Sarajevo lasted for 1395 days. The citizens were bright colours, for fear of alerting their movements to the snipers watching from the hills above.

1395 Days without Red premiered at the Whitworth Art Gallery as part of the Manchester International Festival 2011, and was later screened in London at 10 - 12 Francis Street, SW1P from September - October 2011.

1395 Days without Red is included in The Artangel Collection  

Credits

1395 Days without Red commissioned by Artangel with Manchester International Festival, Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester), Fundació Museu D’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), enabled by Han Nefkens, H+F patronage, Festival d’Automne (Paris), Arts Council England, European Cultural Foundation, Film Fund Sarajevo, Marian Goodman Gallery (New York), Hauser & Wirth (London & Zurich). Co-produced by Artangel and SCCA/pro.ba.

© 2011, Artangel, Šejla Kamerić, Anri Sala, SCCA/pro.ba. All Rights Reserved.

Projections produced by Artangel, Whitworth Art Gallery & Manchester International Festival.

The Artangel Collection is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The John Ellerman Foundation.