Project
Deseos / رغبات
Deseos / رغبات exposes the ways in which medicine, law, religion, and cultural tradition shaped dominant discourses of the gendered and sexual body through the narration of two parallel stories. The first is that of Martina, who lived in Colombia during the late colonial period of the early 19th century. The second is the life of Nour, who lived in Beirut during the late Ottoman Empire. Part documentary and part fiction, the film presents an imaginary correspondence between these women. Separated by geography, culture, and religion they both faced the consequences of engaging in same sex relations and defying gender norms.
The colonial Court prosecuted Martina in 1803 for being a “hermaphrodite” after being accused by her female lover of having an “unnatural” body. Martina was tried in a court of law and ultimately set free after medical doctors appointed by the court were unable to find evidence of her lover’s accusation. This story is documented in the 1803 legal case found in the Archivo General de la Nación in Bogotá, Colombia. Meanwhile in Beirut, Nour married her female lover's brother after her mother found them making love. Despite the fact that Nour's story does not occur in a courtroom nor is it found in a legal case, notions of Islamic and late Ottoman laws, cultures, and histories condition her narrative.
FESTIVALS & SCREENINGS (Up to 2019)
Taipei Biennial, 2019
Arnolfini, London, 2019
2nd Anren Biennale, China, 2019
Mandeville Gallery at Union College, Schenectady, New York, 2019
7 Festival de Cine La Orquídia, Cuenca, 2018
Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU), Bogotá, 2018
Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia/Claustro de San Agustín, 2016 and 2018
Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, 2018
Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Quito, 2018
Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, 2018
LACE, Los Angeles, 2018
Contour Biennale 8, 2017
POMADA 7 Queer Festival, Warsaw, 2017
Museo de Antioquia, Medellín, 2017
Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, California, 2017
International Competition, 20 Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, 2016
Forumdoc.bh, Belo Horizonte, 2016
Invideo 2016, Milan, 2016
Luststreifen Queer Film Festival Basel, 2016
Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, 2016
Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, 2016
INVIDEO—26 Mostra Internazionale di video e cinema oltre, Milano, 2016
FUSO 2016, Anual de Vídeo Arte Internacional de Lisboa, 2016
Fundación Cineteca Pública, Centro Cultura del Oriente, Bogotá, 2016
The 11th XPOSED International Queer Film Festival, Berlin, 2016PPOW Gallery, New York, 2016
Mercer Union, Toronto, 2016Rotterdam Film Festival, 2016
Something Else – Off Cairo Biennale, 2015
Academy Gallery, NAA, Sofia, 2015
Molodist, 45th Kiev International Film Festival, 2015
23 Festival Mix Brasil de Cultura da Diversidade, Sao Paulo, 2015
Queer Lisboa 19. Festival Internacional de Queer Cinema, Lisbon, 2015
Mor Charpentier Galerie, Paris, 2015
Göteborg International Biennial of Contemporary Art, 2015
Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, 2015
