THIS DAY: Recent Film and Video from the Middle East 4.-13.05 Tate Modern

This Day is a series of short films and video works by international artists whose work responds to the cultural, social, historical and political contexts of the Middle East. Nine screenings will present work by more than forty artists from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, in addition to artists from Europe and the United States whose work relates to the Middle East. Featured highlights include an opening performance by Rabih Mroué and a survey of work by Akram Zaatari. The ongoing events in the Middle East produce a flow of images that often represent war, destruction and conflict. Channelled through television and the internet, this imagery constructs and distorts the global understanding of the region, facilitating stereotypes and contaminating efforts to reconstruct a collective memory left in ruins. This Day hopes to challenge these representations by showing moving image work that offers new critical viewpoints onto the region’s rich visual culture. More than ever before, film and video-making from the Middle East interrogates cineamtic and photographic images to consider fundamental ethical and political problems and to question the limits of freedom. Curated by Predrag Pajdic & Samar Martha.