Exercise of Rebuilding and Recovery | Closed World Film Program
The four-part exercises build and unbuild a “closed world” progressively and collaboratively, through community participation. Accordingly, the exercises are designed as a generative system which replicates multiple environments including the home, the theater, and the gallery space. A ‘closed-world’ or ‘closed-loop system’ examines the earth as a whole—as a complete and interconnected system.
Closed World, co-curated by Innocent Ekejiuba and Erika Mei Chua Holum, is a four-part film program including works by an international roster of contemporary artists designed as four exercises in healing. The film series is presented in conjunction with Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions – an exhibition at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston that is co-organized with KADIST – San Francisco and offered as part of the 2024 Texas Biennial: The Last Sky.
Date:
Tuesday, March 4, 2025 | 11am-5:30pm
11am Part I: closed world redux: Exercise in Grief
1pm Part II: closed world redux: Exercise in Memory/Memorialization
2pm -5:30pm
Makeshift Meditations
2pm-5:30pm Poetry Workshop
3pm-4pm Drop in Tour
4pm-5pm Meditation (in Prayer Houston by James Webb)
5:00-5:30 Post event Snack
Films:
Caroline Déodat, Landslides, 2020
Rahima Gambo, Instruments of Air, 2020
Laurent Montaron, What remains is future, 2006
Eusebio Siosi, Sueños de Jepira (Dreams of Jepira), 2022
Date:
Thursday, March 6, 2025
11am | Part III: closed world redux: Exercise in Resilience
Films:
Nguyen Phuong Linh, Memory of the Blind Elephant, 2016
Nguyen Trinh Thi, How to Improve the World, 2021
Wang Tuo, The Interrogation, 2017
1pm | Part IV: closed world redux: Exercise in Recovery/Rebuilding
Films:
Heba Amin, As Bird’s Flying, 2016
Caroline Déodat, Landslides, 2020
Rahima Gambo, Instruments of Air, 2020
Laurent Montaron, What remains is future, 2006
Eusebio Siosi, Sueños de Jepira (Dreams of Jepira), 2022
Date:
Friday, March 7, 2025 | 11am-3pm
11am Part I: Exercise in Grieving
Films:
Runo Lagomarsino, Yo también soy humo (I am also smoke), 2020
Chan Teik Quan, Weeping Birds, 2018
Pooja Gurung & Bibhusan Basnet, DADYAA: The Woodpeckers of Rotha, 2018
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, The Class, 2005
12:30pm Part II: Exercise of Remembranc and Memory
Films:
Martha Colburn, Western Wild … or How I Found Wanderlust and Met Old Shatterhand, 2017
Chitra Ganesh, Silhouette in the Graveyard, 2018
Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Invalid Throne, 2018
Thania Petersen, KASSARAM, 2020
Sriwhana Spong, Beach Study, 2012
1:30pm Part III: Exercise in Resilience
Films:
Nguyen Phuong Linh, Memory of the Blind Elephant, 2016
Nguyen Trinh Thi, How to Improve the World, 2021
Wang Tuo, The Interrogation, 2017
3pm Part IV: Exercise in Rebuilding and Recovery
Films:
Laurent Montaron, What remains is future, 2006
Caroline Déodat, Landslides, 2020
Eusebio Siosi, Sueños de Jepira (Dreams of Jepira), 2022
Rahima Gambo, Instruments of Air, 2020
Location:
Blaffer Art Museum Media Gallery