We Are Not Worried in the Least

Forum Expanded Exhibition 2018

The historical background of the images presented in the exhibition is the turbulent political and social landscape of Egypt from the uprisings of 2011 until today: the constitution of civil societies, a time of new political imaginations towards new elections, the military coup restricting citizens’ rights and evacuating them from the street through the reinforcement of laws and legislatives therefore eliminating any opposition, marginalizing their existence and implementing fear. What gives different shapes to these moving images is an array of varying motivations for filming and recording testimonies, which determine shots, distances, and framing. In a historical moment in which political events get immediately spectacularized and distributed globally in the form of images, this exhibition asks what roles we play when we are producing images as well as when we are looking at them, and what these pictures, now presented in Berlin, could possibly achieve.

We Are Not Worried in the Least is part of “Archive außer sich,” a project of Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt as part of “The New Alphabet,” a HKW project supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media due to a ruling of the German Bundestag.

by Jasmina Metwaly 2016 Arabic, English Documentary form

Crew

Director	Jasmina Metwaly
Producer	SAVVY Contemporary
Commissioned by	SAVVY Contemporary

Jasmina Metwaly

Jasmina Metwaly is an artist and filmmaker based in Cairo and Berlin, and a member of the Mosireen video collective. She works in video and film, and has recently started drawing again. Rooted in performance, theater, and film, her works focus on process-based practices that have a social function generating tension between participants and audiences. Metwaly’s work has been exhibited at international art venues and festivals. After From Behind of the Monument (2013) and Out on the Street (2015) with Philip Rizk, this is her third Forum Expanded participation.

Filmography

2008 Counter-Points; 4 min. · Counter-Points · Splash II; 8 min., video installation · Splash II; 8 min., video installation 2009 Remarks on Colour (Red Version); 1 min. · Remarks on Colour (Red Version) · Flew Like Plywood over Paris; 5 min., video installation · Flew Like Plywood over Paris; 5 min., video installation · Anti-Contraption I; 5 min. · Anti-Contraption I · But What Do the Splinters Reflect; 6 min. · But What Do the Splinters Reflect 2011 Remarks on Medan; 32 min., video installation · Remarks on Medan; 32 min., video installation 2012 About the Donkey That Wanted to Become a Painting · About the Donkey That Wanted to Become a Painting; 7 min. · Crucifiction (Yellow Version); 4 min., video installation · Crucifiction (Yellow Version); 4 min., video installation 2013 From Behind of the Monument; 16 min., Forum Expanded 2014 · From Behind of the Monument 2015 Barra Fel Share' (Out on the Street); 71 min., Forum Expanded 2015 · Barra Fel Share' (Out on the Street) 2018 We Are Not Worried in the Least · We Are Not Worried in the Least; video installation 2022 On This Shore, Here.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023