Ethnographic Fictions by Laura Huertas Millán

Wednesday 22 January 2020, 19:30 - 21:30 hrs.

Markenplein 1 | Cinema, 2nd floor
22 January | 19.30h - 21.30h 
RSVP


Combining science fiction with the tales of conquistadors and missionaries, Laura Huertas Millán’s work seeks to deconstruct the colonial representations of the so-called "New World”. Her hybrid cinema is rooted in anthropology and documentary, while also borrowing freely from contemporary art. 

Between 2009 and 2012, she created a series around exoticism (Journey to a land otherwise known, 2011 and Aequador, 2012) shot between European botanical gardens and the Amazon rainforest. 

In 2012, she started a series of "ethnographic fictions" – films in which anthropology and fiction intertwine. On the one hand, if one considers ethnography as an ensemble of narratives rooted in colonialism, it might be understandable as a form of fiction-making. On the other hand, some of the most interesting contemporary practices of ethnography have embraced a de-colonial turn. Sol Negro (2016), La Libertad (2017), jeny303 (2018) and The Labyrinth (2018) were the results of her exploring this in-betweenness. 

In this “ethnographic fictions” talk Huertas Millán will trace back, through film excerpts, her research into this field. 

Laura Huertas Millán is a French-Colombian filmmaker. After an MFA at Beaux-Art de Paris and Le Fresnoy, she completed a PhD between Paris Science et Lettres University (PSL) and the Sensory Ethnography Lab (Harvard University) with a series of “ethnographic fictions” films. Part of the official selections of the Viennale, the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, Rotterdam, La Habana or Cinéma du Réel (Paris), her hybrid films have earned prizes in Locarno, FIDMarseille, Doclisboa and Videobrasil, among others. Retrospectives of her work have been organised in film festivals such as Mar del Plata, RIDM, Curtocircuito, the Flaherty Seminar, Docs Kingdom and cinematheques as TIFF Lightbox, Bogota´s Cinematheque, the Harvard Film Archive and London´s ICA. Her films have been widely shown in the contemporary art world, in a number of biennials (Liverpool, FRONT Triennial, ScreenCity, Videonale, Momenta), museums (Centre Pompidou, Jeu de Paume, the Guggenheim NY, Times Art Center Berlin, MASP) and galleries (Instituto de Visión, Filles du Calvaire...). Her art works are part of public and private collections in Europe and the Americas.

www.laurahuertasmillan.com

 

Share