Moonscape

2020 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
17:00 minutes

A moonscape is a vista of the lunar landscape or a visual representation of this, such as in a painting. The term “moonscape” is also sometimes used metaphorically for an area devastated by war. Moonscape by Mona Benyamin is inspired by and dedicated to the Lunar Embassy—a company that now sells land on a variety of planets and moons, established in 1980 by a man called Dennis M. Hope, who claimed ownership of the Moon. The predominantly black and white short film is the artist’s first video work. It takes the form of a music video for a ballad performed as a male/female duet in Arabic. Featured in the work is an original song by Benyamin, translated into English by the artist and Bekriah Mawassi. The visuals in Moonscape merge surrealist scenes from the Arab music industry. This includes both music videos and documentation of live music shows, reenacted by the artist’s parents, who also play the roles of the duet singers. In addition, the film features found footage from NASA archives; excerpts from canonic films that influenced the art world and depict representations of the Moon; and screenshots of email correspondence with staff members of the Lunar Embassy. Ultimately, this convergence of interrelated imagery is the artist’s attempt to explore the relationship between hope, nostalgia, and despair.

Mona Benyamin is a visual artist and filmmaker whose work examines intergenerational perspectives on hope, trauma, and identity. Benyamin works in a variety of mediums, including painting, drawing, archival material, and time-based media. In consideration of art history’s political potential, she uses humor and irony as tools of resistance and reflection in her art practice. Her work is heavily influenced by television culture ranging from film noir to contemporary Arab pop music. In her work Trouble in Paradise (2018) Benyamin collaborated with her family as the protagonists and staged her family home as the only setting for the film.

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