FRIK Festival - Skopje 2010

The Folklore & Artistic Troupe of Dhalaristan is a folkloric troupe, dedicated to the reinvestigation of the rituals and traditions of the Dhalarii people. We invite people from local communities to collaborate with us, to further enrich the cultural experience, and meaning, of what it is to be Dhalarii - an identity which transcends political, racial, and ethnic boundaries. Through workshops with the local community, we will work together to (re)discover and add to the existing culture of Dhalaristan, as well as creating new elements which will culminate in a performance/presentation in which previous members of the Troupe and the new members will perform and present the newly developed culture of Dhalaristan. Anyone can become Dhalarii. Dhalaristan is a state that we create through collaboration.

As our gift to Skopje, our new capital, the people of Dhalaristan would like to present a Monument for the square (to replace the one that is 2 years late). Join us in the creation, placement and unveiling of the new monument.

Selection of 6 artistic short films by German and Lithuanian artists selected by Wiebke Stadler. All movies are combined in the attempt to sketch a portrait by using different methods: visual approaches, linguistic efforts, re-enactment. The Films by Timo Schierhorn, Stefan Panhans, Björn Last, Marte Kiessling, Lior Shamriz, and Darius Ziura have chosen different subjects and manners but are joined in the approach to outline features.

Patrick Mendes (1981), Portugal
Patrick Mendes was born in Rhône (France), and came to Portugal (Sintra) at the age of five, where he studied and graduated at the Conservatory of Cinema in Lisbon (finished in 2005). After finishing the studies in Editing and Directing, Patrick Mendes worked with Pedro Costa, João Canijo Werner Schroeter, Eugène Green and Fernando Lopes. Nowadays, Patrick Mendes works as assistant director and produces, writes and directs independent short films.
Stendhal Syndrome (2008), short film, color, 8' 16''
In Cold Blood (2009), short film, 13' 49''
Synchrotron (2009), short film, b/w,
Јurga Zabukaite (Lithuania)
Currently studying MA Contemporary Sculpture in Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania. She is working on body study using contemporary dance as her artistic practice and contemporary performative arts as a theory basis. She focuses on the body as a subject in time and space or time and activity in visual culture. She participated in many internationally recognized film festivals and her latest presentation was on the Cannes Festival 2010.
Gravity (2009), short film, 6'18''
Love scene (2009), short film, 8'16''
Meditation (2009) short film, 8' 6''
Ivo Baru (1978), Bitola, Macedonia
Born on 12 October, 1978 in Bitola, Republic of Macedonia. Graduated film directing on the National University of Theater and Film "I.L.Caragiale", Bucharest in 2006. Working as freelance director since.
Do you have a minute...THAT's GREAT! (2003), short film, 35mm, b/w, 9'
A day in the life of Vasile Marinus (2002), short film, 35mm, b/w, 5'
Rear Shade (2008), short film, 35mm, color, 4'

OPA, Skopje, Macedonia

Obsessive Possessive Aggression is an artistic collaboration whose focus is researching the social, cultural and everyday issues, as well as ways of looking, thinking and behaving of certain community in the shifting social and political conditions.
Let's Talk About… (2003), video, 7'
Red chief 2004, video, 5'

Hatice Guleryuz - The first ones (2000)
Guldem Durmaz - Koro (2002)
Sener Ozmen - Our village (2004)
Burcak Kazgun - On the thin ice (2008)
Ethem Ozvugen - Delirium (2005)
Erkan Ozgen - Origin (2008)
Berat Isik - Where bluebirds fly (2008)
Ferhat Ozgur - A young girl is growing up (2009)
CONDITIONED is a DVD compilation of eight experimental film and video art from Turkey that explores the intellectual conditioning of children and teenagers through both the educational system and contemporary Turkish society at large. Through a variety of styles and approaches, each of these works elude to the conditioning of youth including references to the seemingly innocent daily repetition of the national anthem (The First Ones by Hatice Güleryüz), more violent military methods (Origin by Erkan Özgen), and social injustice (Our village by Sener Özmen). From the privacy of home (A young girl is growing up by Ferhat Özgür) to public spaces (On the thin ice de Burçak Kaygun), several processes are at play, subtly or directly, through the women's prison featured in Koro by Güldem Durmaz or the school in Where Bluebirds fly by Berat Isik. Beyond that lies a reflection on the impact of the world and on the development of an individual such as with the video Delirium by Ethem Özgüven confronting the mechanisms of the consumer society and its psychological consequences. Curated by Yekhan Pinarligil & Silke Schmickl.

Basma Alsharif - We began by measuring distance (2009)
Danielle Arbid - The smell of sex (2008)
Fabian Astore - 3494 Houses + 1 Fence (2006)
Mireille Astore - 3494 Houses + 1 Fence (2006)
Ismail Bahri - Rйsonances (2008)
Halida Boughriet - Les illuminйs (2007)
Nazim Djemai - La parade de Taos (2009)
Khaled Hafey - Revolution (2006)
The a77a Project - On Presidents and Superheroes (2009)
Waheeda Malullah - Play (2009)
Larissa Sansour - RUN LARA RUN
RESISTANCE[S] III, is the third volume of this collection of experimental film and video art from the Middle East and North Africa. Featuring nine artists from a variety of cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, these intimate, poetic and documentary works are witness to the region's complexity, vitality and diversity of creative energies. Distanced from the usual stereotypes, the artists aim to explore existential, political and aesthetic issues of our times while opening up to new narrative perspectives that break with our media's monotonous and repetitive imagery. They present us with new perspectives on time and space, movement and memory, history and personal experience, without neglecting the place of women in society. Curated by Silke Schmickl & Christine Sehnaoui.

David Buob (1972), Berlin, Germany, studied architecture in Kassel and after training as stonemason studied sculpture in Dresden where he graduated in the new media department 2003. Since 2003 he has been working basically with video doing some more or less narrative/experimental pieces performing, shooting and editing all by myself, using different techniques and software tools, combining blue screen and different compositing software or adding video footage to 3D Animation as a collage. Most of his work is dealing with the basic themes of human communication and the difficulties in social life, in their multitude of gender, identity, and self-esteem problems, trying to touch the neuralgic points, but at the same time never loosing the sense of humor. The author is going to present his own selection of his current and past work.

Minh Doung (1981), Munich, Germany visited trainings and education in several productions of image, short and feature films and since 2002 he works as a freelancer for film, TV and commercials. Since 2005 he enrolled at the University of Television and Film in Munich - Directing Class. Minh Doung is director of a few short films which are going to be presented before the talk with him (including the film “Marie” which was presented at the opening of the last year's Frik Film Festival). Carl, short film, color, 15'
Fights, short film, color, 5'
Marie, short film, color, 30'

Haiku Terminators, Skopje, Macedonia
Artistic trio (Vladimir Lukash, Aleksandar Ninich, Eli Chochova) which creates avant-garde fusion sound, minimal, inspired by the Japanese Haiku shape and tradition. It is their first performance in this composition - stringed instrument, trombone, percussions and vocal.
Sviracinja, Skopje, Macedonia
Svirachinja aka The Orphaneus is a multimedia group working in the fields of performance, video, music and radio. It was formed by five young artists from Skopje, Macedonia. In their works they deal with the current happenings in their city and state. Many of their actions and performance events are understood as reflections on the current social and political turmoil.