The Wedding

2016 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

3'loop

Yuri Ancarani

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The Wedding is a silent film, a probing observation of marriage rituals in Qatar in which we soon notice that there is not a single woman visible. The film is part of the broader project The Challenge through which the artist depicts the boredom and rituals endured by young Qatari men throughout various forms of costly and codified entertainment, including the highly theatrical practices of falcon hunting or car racing. The strange, almost surreal, choreography set against an artificial, overexposed backdrop, highlights the privileged presence of men in this part of the world, grouped together by sex and social class. Isolated from the rest of the world, a large tent becomes the theatrical stage. Within this paradigm, silence operates to put the spectator directly in relation with what they see without a mediating discourse.

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Yuri Ancarani’s films are quasi-hypnotic devices; following highly unique bodily and site-specific choreographies, drawing sensitive portraits of human relations. Having been awarded numerous prizes in various festivals, the artist is renowned in both the visual art and the documentary film scenes, His preferred mode of presentation is to show his films in gallery spaces, where spectators can experience the physical presence of the images in different ways. Ancarani works without a precise script, choosing instead a process that favors an experiential depiction of the subject and location, and the creative use of film production techniques. There is not necessarily a discernable narrative in his work, but rather compositions of images or sequences that might be isolated from one another in a discontinuous way without disrupting the coherence of the film. Central characters are often loci for an analysis of certain types of masculinity. The director selects moments in which the expressiveness of the body highlights the rituals through which such behaviors are perpetuated.

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Colors:

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• marriage.n.01
• ritual.n.01
• culture.n.01
• sex.n.04
• ceremony.n.01
• man.n.01