Abkhazia is a separatist region of Georgia, similar to the Donbass area of Ukraine. Following the 1992-93 war with Georgia, Abkhazia was recognised by the Russian Federation, yet it remains a de facto state that is isolated from the international community. In What We Shared (UK/Abkhazia, 2021, 69mins), a hybrid artist film, seven inhabitants of Sukhum/i - Abkhazia’s capital, unfurl a web of stories about loss and displacement through re-imaginings of dreams and memories of the war.

This talk will propose that engaging with archive, memory and trauma today requires experiential responses to testimony, and that these responses challenge the rigidly defined categories of ‘objectivity’, ‘fact’ and ‘fiction.’ It will argue that working with feelings and emotions is a compelling method that helps to create the necessary conditions for participants and filmmakers to effectively process and offer valuable insights into the ‘unrepresentable’ events that contain multiple truths (war, ethnic conflict). To this end, Kuc's method of performative and experiential archiving will be explored as a way of creating more participatory and empowering systems of imagery that aim to address the potential exclusion and isolation that de facto states like Abkhazia evoke.

About the Speaker

Kamila Kuc's practice explores stories that subvert dominant narratives of history, especially those relating to post-Soviet identities. She is a 2021 Jarman Award nominee. Her first feature film, What We Shared (2021) premiered at the 65th BFI London Film Festival and was described as one of ‘the finest examples of UK filmmaking’ by Festival Scope. She is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on experimental media, including Visions of Avant-Garde Film (Indiana University Press). Kuc is the Founder and Director of Dark Spring Studio, a London-based production company dedicated to the production and distribution of artist moving image works that focus on stories that are personal and that are committed to social change. She is currently a participant of an international research project, The Whole Life. Archives & Imaginaries Berlin (2021-22), a collaboration between Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW, Berlin), Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art e.V./Archive außer sich, and the Pina Bausch Foundation.