3:05
Film Premiere: Symptom Recital: Music for Wild Angels | Leila Hekmat
Pálás Cinema, 15 Merchants Rd Lower
Saturday 4 November 2023
2.30pm - 4pm
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is pleased to present the film premiere of Symptom Recital: Music for Wild Angels by Leila Hekmat as part of the TULCA 2023 programme honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais.
Symptom Recital: Music for Wild Angels is a film of a live performance which took place as part of the exhibition Female Remedy at the Haus am Waldsee in 2023. The museum was transformed into an infirmary for women complete with beds, operating theatre, a chapel and other various rooms for treatment. The story is about a collective of women both familiar and unique to this story and this setting. The setting and spiritual locus for these women is Hospital Hekmat. This is a facility for an illness which needs no cure. The purpose of this infirmary is to fortify existing insolence and foster growth through comic relief and buffoonery. The story is told by the hospital’s head nurse and Jewish general surgeon Krankensister Rene and other nurses and patients. Taking the form of a variety show consisting of satirical monologues with musical interludes weaving the stories of the trials and tribulations of the irreverent staff and patients. The plays’ text and lyrics are crafted from personal experiences, collected dialogue from old television shows, poetry, psychology texts, films and stand-up comedy.
Leila Hekmat
Leila Hekmat (b. 1981, Los Angeles, USA) lives and works in Berlin as a visual artist and director. Her artistic practice heavily involves theatrical installation and stagings which act as mis en scene for a narrative that she explores through a performance and its afterlife. She uses music and satire to question the societal structures and norms we commonly accept regarding gender and sexuality and conjures atypical scenarios that challenge the very notion of normalcy and happiness. Everyday traumas are staged via eccentric, broken spirits as ridiculous, camp, and fantastical dramas. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin.
Writing, Direction, Costumes, Set: Leila Hekmat
Music: Roman Ole, Roman Lemberg
Starring: Roman Ole, Magdalena Mitterhofer, Clara Dessau, Cassie Augusta Jørgensen, Shade Theret, Roman Lemberg
Editing: Manu Aguilar
Produced by Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi & Haus am Waldsee
Film details:
Leila Hekmat
Symptom Recital: Music for Wild Angels, 2023
Film, single channel 4K video
Ca. 86 min
Ed 2/3 + 2AP
Copyright Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
honey, milk and salt in a seashell before sunrise
Curated by Iarlaith Ní Fheorais
3 - 19 November 2023
Galway, Ireland
Access: Step free venue. Accessible toilet facilities located at -2 level. Each screen has wheelchair accessible seats, at the back room of each screen. A complimentary carer seat is provided with these seats. Three accessible parking spots on Saint Augustine Street opposite the TULCA Gallery, a 4-minute walk from the venue. There is a Loop system in every screen. The film is captioned.
Image: Still from Leila Hekmat, Symptom Recital: Music for Wild Angels, 2023. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin