Jonna Kina’s new cinematic work After Life followed by Red Impasto Jar (2021) was selected for Berlinale Forum Expanded. The work is a composition of two separate films exploring transcendental issues through illegal excavations of tombs – a phenomenon faced by many rural archaeological sites. The films portray both the site and an object originating one of the necropoleis around Narce.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, Berlinale will be held in two parts this year. The professional event European Film Market will be held online from March 1–5 while the screenings for general public will be screened in film theatres from June 9–20.
After Life followed by Red Impasto Jar is composed of two separate films followed by each other. Both films explore transcendental issues through archaeological and illegal excavations of tombs.
After Life consists of a sequence of meditative short scenes picturing the ruins of a small Faliscan necropolis of Cavone di Monte Li Santi in Italy and its surrounding natural elements. The rock-cut chamber tombs of the necropolis had been illegally excavated before they were archaeologically discovered in 2015 – a phenomenon still faced by many rural archaeological sites.
At the center of Red Impasto Jar is a looted archaeological tomb object. In antiquity, the funeral was a significant ceremony where entombing of the body was just one component in the complex sequence of events. This ancient Faliscan tomb item dating back to the 6th century BCE was passed to the archaeological museum (Mazzano Romano, Italy). The jar is radically altered and damaged by being cemented into the structures of a house as a decorative element. The film portrays the state of the pottery focusing on the detailed choreography and documentation of the object with a slow 360° rotation on a robust industrial motor against a monochromatic background.
By unveiling and deconstructing forms and methods, Jonna Kina’s works suggest complex questions dealing with a diverse range of topics: the transsensory power of sound; the relations and exchanges between artifice and reality; the mechanisms of translation; the relationship between the viewer and the artwork. Kina’s works has been presented in international exhibitions and festivals, such as Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; International Film Festival Rotterdam; Berlinale Forum Expanded; Espoo
Museum of Modern Art EMMA; Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne; Moscow Biennale for Young Art. Nordisk Panorama selected Kina’s film Arr. for a Scene as the “Best Nordic Short Film” (2017).
Berlin International Film Festival, March 1–5 2021 / June 9–20 2021, online & Berlin
More information: Berlinale Forum Expanded