Wildfire I

What does friendship mean in the time of genocide? A time when many lifelong associations have turned cold and an abundance of new kinships have formed overnight. A time when all kinds of people have intuitively gravitated towards each other while struggling to regain balance in a shattered world, in need of a simple acknowledgement of their shared humanity. Have the familiar patterns of friendship not altered - in a new rhizomatic formation - with strangers having come together in a moment of collective grief bearing? 

Berlin-based Pakistani artist Bani Abidi thinks through heartbreak and society, and introduces us to new allies and old friends. Friendships from the past two years formed on the fringes of artistic practice, but not due to it. Rather, they grew over Instagram posts, cooking and eating, organizing, grieving, raging and walking together. Two years on they seem to exude an impermeable and formidable force, intrinsic to our survival. Here she asks how we lean on, take from and carry forward each other’s tireless minds and labour; poetry and art? 

In the first of a set of three screenings titled Wildfire, we watch films by five Berlin-based artists: Candice Breitz, Basma Alsharif, Pinar Ogrenci, Heba Amin and Sylvia Schedelbauer. The works offer diverse narratives about familial and political histories, the politics of witnessing, social alienation and friendship.

The screenings will be followed by a discussion between Abidi and Omar Kasmani: her old friend and Berlin-based cultural anthropologist. A reading of Kasmani's set of texts 'Love is a City in Anguish' will be followed by a conversation around conviviality, migrant belonging and political heartbreak.

FILMS
Candice Breitz - Dear Esther (May 1943) 2025 (9:00)
Basma Al Sharif - Morgen Kreise 2025 (20:31)
Pinar Ogrenci - Hotel Miks 2023 (12:20)
Heba Amin - Iterations on Witnessing 2025 (23:27)
Sylvia Schedelbauer - Memories 2004 (19:16)