The special January edition of CAST Film Club is guest curated by Adam Pugh, a curator, writer and designer based in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he runs the artists’ moving image programme, Projections, at Tyneside Cinema. Adam will visit Cornwall to introduce Bouchra Khalili’s film The Tempest Society, which was premiered at documenta 14 in Athens in 2017.
The Tempest Society is not a documentary or a fiction but a hypothesis: three Athenians from different backgrounds form a group in Athens to examine the current state of Greece, Europe and the Mediterranean. They name themselves ‘The Tempest Society’ to pay homage to Al Assifa (‘The Tempest’ in Arabic), a theatre group active in Paris in the 1970s and comprised of North African immigrant workers and French students. Through the format of a ‘theatrical newspaper’, Al Assifa addressed the daily struggle against inequality and racism in France.
Forty years later, the forgotten legacy of Al Assifa finds a site of reactivation in Greece. On a theatre stage members of The Tempest Society and their guests call together for equality, civic belonging and solidarity.
Bouchra Khalili is a Moroccan-French artist living in Berlin and Oslo. Working with film, video, installation and photography, she has exhibited internationally, including documenta 14 (2017), Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016) and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015). Her work is currently on show at the National Museum of Wales as one of five shortlisted artists in Artes Mundi 8, the UK’s biggest art prize, awarded to an international contemporary artist. The winner of the prize will be announced at an award ceremony in Cardiff on 24 January 2019.
Building on the legacy of Groundwork, CAST Film Club is an ongoing programme of moving image work by British and international artists.
The public programme at CAST is currently supported from funds awarded by Arts Council England for the Groundwork programme.