Lost Islands (2021)

Lost Islands (2021) is based on the ‘Lost Islands’ performance project commissioned by the Helsinki Biennial 2021. CREDITS Written and Directed by Samir Bhowmik Cinematography by Christopher L. Thomas Editing by Christopher L. Thomas & Samir Bhowmik Sound Design by Viljami Lehtonen 2nd Camera Operated by Roxana Sadvokassova Vocals by Dallas Ulla Aerial Filming by Ville Hyvönen Color Correction & Grading by Emmi Holopainen Narrated by Samir Bhowmik Performed by Esete Sutinen, Jani Toivola, Amira Khalifa & Geoffrey Erista Performance Design and Implementation by Samir Bhowmik, Esete Sutinen, Jani Toivola, Amira Khalifa & Geoffrey Erista Performance Dramaturgy by Michelle Orenius (2021) and Warda Ahmed (2020) Performance Co-direction by Michelle Orenius Costume Design by Hanne Jurmu (2021) and Pauliina Sjöberg (2020) Motion Design by Oskar Koli (Installation: Signals from the Sea) Production Assistance by Tero Kaipanen Project Advised by Jussi Parikka Description Samir Bhowmik’s film Lost Islands is based on a work of art with the same name. The piece was exhibited at the 2021 Helsinki Biennial, spreading into the surroundings of Vallisaari and taking viewers on a journey to explore the island’s actual and imagined infrastructure and technology. The guided walking tour followed the topography of the island, its forest paths and water bodies, and its historic buildings, ruins and bunkers. Together with his working group, Bhowmik had built a performative whole consisting of installations, performance art, modern dance, singing and experimental music along the route. “Lost Islands takes you on a performative journey through the wilderness and ruins of Vallisaari where black and brown bodies – the repressed ghosts of technology and infrastructure exist in search of utopia, but only struggle in the state of a black inferno. As a performative commentary on the oppression of the human in the post-Anthropocene, Lost Islands explores the conquest of nature, of common lands, and the laboring body by colonialism for resource extraction. By performative movements, it investigates the capture of knowledge and of black and brown bodies by mechanization into modern technologies and infrastructure. Finally, the ultimate transformation of these bodies into automation driven by Artificial Intelligence provokes an existential dilemma – an enduring question for us to answer in the present and the near future. Lost Islands is inspired by Kathryn Yusoff’s A Billion Black Anthropocenes or None, Jussi Parikka’s The Geology of Media, Tove Jansson’s The Island, the writings of Dionne Brand, Sylvia Winter, N.K. Jemisin, Achille Mbembe and others.” Screened at Helsinki Art Museum HAM Hall 28 October – 28 November 2021 Duration 18 min, film in English https://www.hamhelsinki.fi/en/2021/11...