Jan Ijäs’ Waste No. 5 The Raft of the Medusa (2017) will be screened in Casa do Cinema Manoel de Oliveira, part of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art. The film was included in the Social Ecology? film programme, held on November 7 and 8 at 17:30. The series is part of Serralves’ annual Stethoscope -programme, which seeks to investigate a cinema that faces the dilemmas of the present at the intersection with aesthetics, politics and sociology. Social Ecology? reflects on the problems of social ecology, sustainability and the impact of globalization on the environment.
Waste No. 5 The Raft of the Medusa won the Amnesty International Award at the IndieLisboa film festival in 2018. The film parallels the wrecked boats of the African immigrants on the Italian Lampedusa island and the abandoned cars of asylum seekers that have travelled from Russia to Salla, Finnish Lapland with Théodore Géricault’s painting Le radeau de la Méduse (1818-1819), located in Louvre. Based on true events, the subject of the painting is the 1816 shipwreck of Méduse, a frigate with administrative personnel on their way from France to African colonies. The passengers of the ship rescued on a raft they built and left drifting on the open sea with fatal consequences. Over the years, the painting has become a universal symbol for both despair and hope.
Media artist and film director Jan Ijäs (b. 1975) studied documentary film making at the Department of Film, Television and Scenography at the Aalto University in Helsinki. His work can be described as a blend of avant garde, experimental media art and documentary film making. His films have been screened at more than 200 Finnish and international film festivals and as installations in museums and art galleries.
Social Ecology?, 7 – 8 November 2020, Porto, Portugal
More information: Serralves Museum