Prisons

2011 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

12 minutes

Clarisse Hahn

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Prisons is part of a series of videos, entitled Our Body is a Weapon , representing individuals who affirm the body as a place of political and social resistance. In this video, two young women used their bodies as a weapon of war, participating in a hunger strike in Turkish prisons in the year 2000. This hunger strike was violently repressed by the army. Between portraits and archive images, this video is a reflection on the resistance and sacrifice of individuals against the violence of the State. According to Giovanna Zapperi, ‘The tensions taking place between those who occupy the surface of the image and the eye that gazes on them constitute the heart of Clarisse Hahn’s reflection.’ The title of the series repeats that of the video, in which a Turkish-Kurdish communist militant, disabled following a fast to death, says: “our body is a weapon, a loaded rifle that fires for victory.”

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Through her films, photographs and video installations, Clarisse Hahn continues a documentary research on communities, behavioral codes and the social role of the body. Is the body perceived in society? How can the body be used or exploited according to geographical regions and political needs? The artist’s series Boyzone is a striking and poignant exploration of raw truth, an uncompromising work that interrogates masculinity and the theme of incarceration.

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Colors:

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• body.n.01
• protest.n.01
• weapon.n.01
• resistance.n.01
• dissidence.n.01
• repression.n.01
• forfeit.n.03