Weeds and Aliens

“Weeds and Aliens” is a film program curated by the director of Atelier Nord, Ida Lykken Ghosh, which will be screened at the Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival (AMIFF) in Harstad on Saturday, October 14th, from 14:00 to 15:30. Tickets can be purchased here.

The program brings together seven artists, featuring works from 1987 to 2023. It encourages coming together through daydreams, humor, empathy, and openness. The title “Weeds and Aliens” is taken from a book by visual artist, fashion designer, and photographer Benjamin Alexander Huseby from 2015. The book is described as “a random collection of some wonderful, useful plants, usually considered as weeds.” The history of useful plants is contextualized in the book within the context of humanity and civilization, agriculture, and migration. By juxtaposing weeds and humanity, Huseby describes a sense of being in-between places and a state between movement and abandonment.

After the screening, there will be a conversation between curator Ida and artists Fatou Åsbakk and Eli Mai Huang Nesse.

Films:

• Eli Mai Huang: I Forgot My Grandparents’ Names 8:42 min. 2018
• Sunil Gupta: Cock Crazy or scared stiff 5.27 min.1992/ 93
• Marte Gunnufsen: Queen! 4:20 min. 2018
• Qi Tan: Shadow Bugs 6:50 min. 2021
• Inger Lise Hansen: Static 4:43 min. 1995
• Ann-Elise Pettersen Hyndøy: Terra Pax (Drøm) 20:45 min. 1987
• Fatou Åsbakk: Acting out fourteen in front of an audience, to be able to fully appreciate soon becoming forty a.k.a. finished researching and start life 4 real, according to Jung 2 min. 2023

Stil images from Eli Mai Huang’s film: I Forgot My Grandparents’ Names