in|discussion
Mieke Bal
Imaging
Madness
6.30pm Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Room 4027, Aungier Street Campus
Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin
2
Mieke Bal, a cultural theorist and critic, is based at the Amsterdam
School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam. Her interests
range from biblical and classical antiquity to 17th century and
contemporary art and modern literature, feminism and migratory culture, and
madness. Her many books include Of What
One Cannot Speak: Doris Salcedo’s Political Art (2010), Loving Yusuf (2008), A Mieke Bal
Reader (2006), Travelling Concepts in the Humanities (2002) and Narratology
(3d edition 2009). She is also
a video-artist, making experimental documentaries on migration. Occasionally
she acts as an independent curator.
Mostly with the collective Cinema
Suitcase, Mieke makes films that seek to facilitate the
self-narration of their subjects, encountered on the basis of intimacy, rather
than constructing their stories for them. This approach enhances the
performative quality of filmmaking as a collective process. The films refrain from
deploying narrative voice-over and only contain set sound. Stories are not
chronological but emerge from associative links, constituting a kind of ‘free
indirect style.’ These include Separations
83 min. (2009); State of Suspension 82 min. (2008); Becoming Vera 53 min. 2008; Un
Trabajo Limpio 21 min. (looped) 2007; Colony
30 min. 2007; Access Denied, 31 min. 2005; Mille
et un jours, 45 min. 2004. She also made Nothing is Missing, a multiple-screen
video installation, 25-35 minutes (5-15 channels) 2006-present.
Her first fiction feature, A Long History of Madness, with Michelle Williams Gamaker, about
psychoanalysis and madness in cultural history, is currently being presented
internationally. Also with Michelle, she made a video installation Anachronisms,”
commissioned by the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (Sp.). www.miekebal.org; www.crazymothermovie.com
- I am interested in how
images help articulate and embody thought, in the case at hand, thought about
forms of “otherness” that cut through ethnic, sexual, religious, age- and other
groups, namely, “madness”. I contend that images can perform an equivalent of
speech acts; that they can respond (“speak back”) to the look cast onto them,
and that they can entice viewers to theorize. They are performative. They do something; they act. I call such “speaking
images”, which speak back, resist (parts of) my interpretation of them, and
make me think, “theoretical objects.”
- As an
inter-disciplinary, international scholar, I have taken this view one step
further when, in an inter-ship for which I have not yet a name, I began to
supplement my research into contemporary (migratory) culture with filmmaking,
as another, more complex, closer, synaesthetic and intimate form of
(audio-visual) analysis. At the heart of the film I will present lies the
question if it is possible to “image” madness. Is there an iconography of
madness, and if so, how can it avoid stereotyping; and if not, how else can one
create a convincing image of madness? And what socio-cultural purpose can such
images serve? The lecture is both an autonomous experiment in thought, and an
introduction to the film A Long History
of Madness. (Bal & Williams Gamaker 2011) - Mieke Bal
The lecture, Imaging Madness, (40mins) will be
followed by a screening of the film, A
Long History of Madness (120mins).
All are welcome to this free event.
To secure your place, please book by email: indiscussionadp@gmail.com
in|discussion a
forum to discuss contemporary issues and current research in typography, art,
design, material culture, critical theory, pedagogy, philosophy, society and
technology.
An exhibition in conjunction with in|discussion 2011-12:
Facing
It - Imaging Madness 18 November - 10 December 2011
Installations by Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker
Opening
6.00pm Thursday, 17 November 2011
Broadcast Gallery, School of Art Design and Printing
Portland Row, Dublin Institute of Technology,
Dublin 1
Facing It - Imaging Madness
is part of the Mère Folle Project by Mieke
Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker. The project constitutes an
attempt to offer museum and gallery visitors experiences they don't ordinarily
have. In a combination of shock, pleasure, strangeness and beauty, they will
make a journey through 'madness', rather than sitting in front of the screen,
as in the cinema. It is aimed at people interested in video art, unusual
narratives, and uncommon audio-visual sensations ' and mental illness.
This
is a project of multiple video installations through which the idea of
'madness' is given a variety of interpretations. It is an experiment in
audio-visual story-telling. Distinct from cinema, in the installation the
'second-person', the visitor, is in charge of making the stories through their
own itinerary and combination of stories, portraits, and scenes on view. At
Broadcast, The Space In-Between, Watching the News, Office Hours, Sissi's
Treatment will be shown.
All
are welcome to the exhibition and opening, where Mieke Bal will introduce the
work. Further information on: www.broadcastgallery.ie/
