The Season of Burning Things
The Season of Burning Things is moving image collaboration between Asmaa Jama and Ghouled Ahmed. Unfolding from the creators’ perspectives in the Somali diaspora, the piece takes the lead from East African mythos and Islamic imagery to explore mythmaking, Blackness; a ‘generation of ghosts’ and the transient spirit.
videotage programme history /
about the artist /
With a background in poetry, Asmaa’s practice is concerned with how the supernatural, ancient rites and rituals speak to the tensions of our contemporary world. Asmaa Jama’s first film work Before We Disappear (2021), was an interactive moving image piece commissioned by BBC Arts, followed by The Season of Burning Things (2021), in collaboration with Gouled Ahmed, commissioned by the Bristol Old Vic (2021) and Except this time nothing returns from the ashes (2022), their first institutional solo, at Spike Island. Their work has also been presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in collaboration with the Goethe Institute and Theatre Neumarkt’s 100 Ways to Say We Programme (2021), and was the official selection at Blackstar Film Festival and Aesthetica Film Festival.
vmac archived / artworks from the artist
about the artist /
Gouled Abdishakour Ahmed is a visual artist, stylist, costume designer and writer. Their work explores themes of memory, belonging and futurity using self-portraiture and self- fashioning as a tool to challenge traumatic histories and interrogate how structures of power have created meaning in how the ‘other’ is seen and understood in the Horn of Africa.
They collaborated with Asmaa Jama on Before We Disappear an interactive moving image piece commissioned by BBC Arts. Abdishakour Ahmed also collaborated on the experimental film The Season of Burning Things with Jama commissioned by the Bristol Old Vic (2021). Their work was also presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in collaboration with the Goethe Institute and Theatre Neumarkt’s 100 Ways to Say
We Programme (2021).
Abdishakour Ahmed featured in the documentary The Ones Who Keep Walking which is a film commissioned by Johnnie Walker, to share the stories of twenty rising creatives and boundary-pushers from the African continent who are taking bold steps, refusing to stand still, and re-shaping Africa on new terms.
Abdishakour Ahmed is a recipient of the African Cultural Fund’s inaugural grant as well as the Prince Claus Fund’s inaugural Seed Award.
vmac archived / artworks from the artist
All copyright reserved by the artist. 作品版權歸藝術家所有。
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