John Akomfrah: Memory Rooms

April 15 - 30, 2022

Pera Film presents an online selection of the single-channel works of the artist, director, curator John Akomfrah as part of SENKRON 'Simultaneous Video Exhibitions'. Co-founder of Black Audio Film Collective, Akomfrah weaves together original footage with archival material to create stirring, layered narratives that juxtapose personal and historical memory, past and present, and environmental and human crises.

In the program that will take place online between April 15 – 30; Handsworth Songs, a film essay on racial and social turmoil in 1980s England and the urban riots of 1985; Testament, which deals with the situation of post-colonial societies through the character of Abena, a former activist and new news presenter who returned to contemporary Ghana for the first time in years after the 1966 coup; Who Needs A Heart, a series of micro-narratives that follow the lives of a group of friends and lovers from 1965 to 1975; Speak Like A Child chronicling the relationships between three friends whose lives are irreversibly changed as a result of an event out of control, and The Nine Muses, which stylized and authentically chronicles the history of the mass exodus from Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia to rebuild post-war England.

The program will be streamed at film.peramuzesi.org.tr between April 15 -30, and only be accessible to online audiences in Turkey. As per legal regulations, all our screenings are restricted to persons over 18 years of age, unless stated otherwise.

Handsworth Songs

Handsworth Songs

Testament

Testament

Who Needs A Heart

Who Needs A Heart

Speak Like A Child

Speak Like A Child

The Nine Muses

The Nine Muses

The Battle of Varna

The Battle of Varna

Over the years of 1864 through 1876, Stanisław Chlebowski served Sultan Abdülaziz in Istanbul as his court painter. As it was, Abdülaziz disposed of considerable artistic talents of his own, and he actively involved himself in Chlebowski’s creative process, suggesting ideas for compositions –such as ballistic pieces praising the victories of Turkish arms. 

Souvenirs of the Future

Souvenirs of the Future

You try to remember the future. A bird painted on the ceramic panel in a historical palace has found its place on the wall. The tiles of a church and a mosque have been painted on canvas. The pattern of a centuries-old ceramic plate appears before you on a velvet curtain.

Midnight Horror Stories: The Last Ferry <br> Galip Dursun

Midnight Horror Stories: The Last Ferry
Galip Dursun

I remembered a game as I was waiting in the passenger lounge for the ferry to arrive just a few minutes ago. A game we used to play at home when I was young, in my country that is very far away from here, a relic from the distant past; I don’t even remember how we used to play it. The kind of game that makes me feel a thousand times lonelier than I already am among the crowd waiting to get on the ferry.