Event
MATRIX 257 / Eric Baudelaire: Letters to Max & The Secession SessionsPost an Event »
Kadist Art Foundation
February 7 - February 21, 2015Info
2401 Folsom Street San Francisco, CA 94110 Google Map »
The Secession Sessions explores another place caught in a contested narrative—the disputed region of Abkhazia, located along the eastern shores of the Black Sea, about which Baudelaire states: “To many observers, Abkhazia is simply a pawn in the Great Game Russia and the West have always played in the Caucasus.” Consisting of a new film, Letters to Max (2014); a pseudo, unofficial embassy (“Anembassy”) for Abkhazia staffed by the former foreign minister of Abkhazia, Maxim Gvinjia (also the star of the film); and a program of conversations and public events, The Secession Sessions invites visitors to investigate the question of statehood and representation through the prism of the stateless state of Abkhazia. Baudelaire establishes an open space for discourse and contemplation, while acknowledging both sides of the politically fraught situation.
February 7, 2015 5:00 p.m. Session 1: The Anembassy Is Open
February 11, 2015 6:00 p.m. Session 2: Made in USA
February 14, 2015 5:00 p.m. Session 3: Performance as Politics and Vice Versa
February 18, 2015 6:00 p.m. Session 4: Georgian Voices
February 21, 2015 5:00 p.m. Session 5: Present Future of Emancipation
Letters to Max stretches out across a series of seventy-four letters that artist Eric Baudelaire wrote and sent from his home in Paris to Max Gvinjia, the former foreign minister of Abkhazia. A stateless state situated along the eastern shores of the Black Sea in the Caucasus, Abkhazia is officially recognized by only a few other countries. Baudelaire wrote these letters thinking that they would be returned to him, stamped “destination unknown”; yet, to his surprise Max received them. Since Abkhazia’s post office cannot handle international mail, Max responded to the letters with a series of audio recordings, which comprise the film’s soundtrack. Shot in Abkhazia, where Baudelaire has been traveling intermittently since 2000, the film explores the fraught existence of a region caught between the polarizing, post-Soviet narratives of East and West. An intimate portrait not only of Gvinjia, but also of a contested territory, the film unfolds in slow, epi stolary reflections that contrast with the rapid-fire pace of our hyper-networked lives.
Written, photographed by Baudelaire, with Max Gvinjia. (103 mins, In English and Russian with English subtitles, Color, HD video, From LUX)
Screening dates & times for "Letters to Max" can be found at: http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/matrix257
More information about the Secession Sessions can be found at: http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/events/education/257