Uriel Orlow’s Unmade Film was presented at Bergen Kunsthall as part of Bergen Assembly 2013 – Monday Begins on Saturday, an initiative for art and research taking the form of an international exhibition, publication, and symposium which presented the positions of over 40 international artists. Curated by Ekaterina Degot and David Riff.

Unmade Film is an impossible film, fragmented into its constituent parts; an expansive collection of audio-visual works that point to the structure of a film but never fully become one. Unmade Film takes as its starting point the hospital Kfar Shau’l in Jerusalem. Initially specialising in the treatment of Holocaust victims–including a relative of the artist–it was established in 1951 using the remains of the Palestinian village Deir Yassin which was depopulated in a massacre by Zionist paramilitaries in April 1948.

“Upon the horrific realization that Kfar Sha’ul is in fact Deir Yassin, Orlow set out on a journey to probe the meaning of one painful event in history obliterating the other, in a context of historical intimacy between both… Orlow’s Unmade Film reconstructs a narrative of space, time and historical blind-spots that adds layers of unsettled new meaning to questions of subconscious pain, trauma and suffering in the contexts of obliterated geo-histories.” Hanan Toukan

Unmade Film was developed through long-term research and collaborative workshops with actors, musicians and teenagers in East Jerusalem and Ramallah; the resulting work combines sound, drawing, video, music and photography.

Installation view

Uriel Orlow, Unmade Film: The Reconnaissance, 2012-13
Audio file (7m 25), sandbox, wallpaper image
Edition of 5

Uriel Orlow, Paused Prospect, 2012-13
6 C-type photographs mounted on aluminium
Edition of 5

Installation view