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I AM A TOOL OF GENTRIFICATION

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I am a tool of gentrification is an experimental documentary series by Lyubov Matyunina in which she aims to explore complex shifts in the gentrification process of Amsterdam. What is the role of the artist in this process? How we can make use of the current situation and turn it into a positive development for the arts and artists? The project aims to function as a series of speculative propositions on the subject of how to make gentrification work for Amsterdam-based artists and art, which will primarily open up through interviews and discussions. The films include artistic performances, carpets and masks as a representation of my personal feelings about the gentrification process and as a metaphor for this situation. I am a tool of gentrification consists of three parts: Amsterdam-Noord, -Centrum and -West.

POST FAIRY TALE

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Lasagna of the history with the sparkles of Instagram culture and TV propaganda. The experimental documentary film is based on a fairy tale written by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1819, titled 'Little Zaches, Great Zinnober' . Critically asking the question of the function of social media in today’s reality and whether the positivism of the fairy tale is replaced with the shallowness of virtual social appearance. is there a place for a real fairy tale in our pragmatic, information savvy world? The moral of Hoffmann’s fairy tale teaches us to become aware of mere appearances and always look for bottom-ground reasons and explanations. There are two main elements in the “Post Fairy tale”: First an active construction of cinematic fairy tale and the second passive life observation in its natural course, a sort of surveillance and poetic capturing of reality. The adaptation of the fairy tale is staged in the native ground of both the artist and Hoffman – the city of Königsberg (Kingdom of Prussia), today the city of Kaliningrad (Russian Federation enclave on a Baltic sea). A voice over with the narration of the original text of Hoffmann in German together with its Russian translation, guides us through the film and its ruins, touching upon the question of authorship and translation both on the physical land and through its virtual history.

Publications: Mister Motley,   NRC.nl, ARTNEWS: ´The cover of the Summer 2017 issue of ARTnews, on newsstands May 23/2017.
Image: Lyubov Matyunina, 'Post Fairy Tale' (still), 2016, HD video. Courtesy the artist.

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