The Hidden Conference is a three-part series of filmic investigations in museum storages. All three films evoke the discussions one can imagine artworks in a museum’s storage spaces might have with one another. They become protagonists in a filmic narrative that unfolds before a handheld camera; their invisible nexuses and the condition of silent coexistence are enlivened besides scientific or chronological claims by the restless camerawork and the montage of textual fragments, filmic pictures and sound elements. The soundscape is an equal partner in supporting the fictionalization process.
This first part of the trilogy is set in an unidentified location (the storage area of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin) at an unspecified point in time in the future or in the past. It brings to light a situation that, although existing for years, has now taken on a certain degree of urgency. Nonetheless, the reason for the meeting is no longer known.
The Hidden Conference: About the Discontinuous History of Things We See and Don't See, 2010
35mm film, color, optical sound, 13:40 min
Images 1, 2, 3: Film still © Rosa Barba
Image 4: Installation view at carlier l gebauer, 2011 © Rosa Barba
The Hidden Conference: About the Discontinuous History of Things We See and Don’t See, 2010 has been on display at the following locations:
The Tanks at Tate Modern, London, 2023
Tate Modern, London, 2020
ARTER, Istanbul, 2019
Hamburger Bahnhof, 2016
ICA Boston, 2016
Sprengel Museum, 2012
Maxxi Museum, Rome, 2011
Arter, Istanbul, 2012
carlier gebauer, 2011
The Hidden Conference: About the Discontinuous History of Things We See and Don’t See, 2010 has been on display at the following locations:
ICA London, 2013
Gene Siskel Center, Chicago, 2013
Filmforum, Gorizia, 2013
Starr Auditorium, Tate Modern, London, 2010