Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” tricks us into thinking that the play will reach its apex with the arrival of someone who goes by the name Godot. And yet – always a tad bit too late – we come to realize that what we were waiting for was, in fact, the waiting itself.
“The Many Afterlives of Her Eternal Now” stages a conversation between anti-imperialist cultural workers, by asking what is it that we do while waiting for the Empires to fall – when ends justify the means and yet there seems to be no end in sight.
The talk is framed by two short films focusing on the perpetual cultural and manual peace-making labour in the context of the fall of Yugoslavia, followed by a presentation of the 5th issue of “Solomiya” magazine “After Now” that reflects on the 12th year of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.
Participants:
“Solomiya” editorial team, represented by magazine’s co-founders Sebastian Wells, Ivanna Kozachenko and Vsevolod Kazarin
Independent moving-image curator Martyna Ratnik, working in partnership with the London Short Film Festival and the media education and research center “Meno Avilys”
About the magazine:
Founded in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Solomiya is an English-language independent magazine born from artists’ decolonial engagement with their environment amid ongoing imperial aggression. It presents diverse perspectives on contemporary realities and social issues in Ukraine and beyond through visual art, text, and design blending personal experience, documentary practices and discourse.
“Solomiya’s” newest issue “After Now” reflects on hope and freedom not as a triumph, but as a complex, often compromised condition, entangled in inequality, shaped by trauma, and co-opted by power.
About the films:
“Waiting for Godot… in Sarajevo” (1993) by Susan Sontag and Nicole Stéphane | 26mins
In the summer of 1993, American cultural theorist Susan Sontag travelled to the besieged city of Sarajevo to stage Samuel Beckett’s tragicomical play “Waiting for Godot”.
“Hope Hotel Phantom” (2023) by Bojan Stojčić | 22mins
The Dayton Peace Accords, negotiated at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in 1995, ended the violent war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Agreement simultaneously trapped the country in an unchangeable quasi democratic state.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲. 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱.
𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: https://forms.gle/5Xf3T3nbcZugHbnu5
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This event is part of the Meno Avilys’ Cinematheque event series, curated by Ona Kotryna Dikavičiūtė.
Cinematheque event series is a continuous project of “Meno Avilys”, during which Lithuanian and foreign artists, curators, and researchers are invited to explore the physical and virtual archive of the restored films and video art of the Cinematheque. The curatorial research is presented to the audiences of “Meno Avilys” via guest-curated programmes of moving pictures, public talks, commissioned texts, and literature recommendations.
𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗿: „Meno avilys“
𝗦𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀: Lietuvos kultūros taryba, Vilniaus miesto savivaldybė, Lietuvos kino centras
𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿: Mindaugas Gavrilovas (Studio Cryo)