Sunset Kino: Films by Ofri Cnaani

Films by Ofri Cnaani
13.08.2025 21:00
Introduction by Jess Łukawska, Salzburger Kunstverein. Followed by a Q&A with Ofri Cnaani and Jess Łukawska.

Ground Control: When The Horizon Becomes a Frontier, 2023, 17 min 32 sec
Ground Control: When The Horizon Becomes a Frontier is a video created in collaboration with astronaut Eytan Stibbe during his mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Offering a different kind of virtual tour to a place one cannot reach—space—the work reflects on the politics of representing the “new space,” a rapidly evolving techno-political arena undergoing accelerated privatization. It traces the transformation of space from a distant horizon into a new technological and economic frontier.

We, Work, 2019, 9 min 15 sec
What is the ‘shelf life’ of an object once it enters an art institution’s collection? What potential do these items hold to mark a shift in the relationship between art, labor, and social responsibility? Filmed inside the storage facilities of an 80-year-old socialist collection museum located on a Kibbutz, the video examines the status of artworks when they are no longer on display. It reflects on ideological shifts surrounding the concept of work and solidarity, and considers the working conditions within and around cultural institutions.

Leaking Lands, 2023, 22 min 44 sec
Leaking Lands, a three-channel video, recounts the story of the devastating fire that destroyed two centuries’ worth of treasures at Brazil’s National Museum, leaving almost no physical or digital trace of its building or collection. Today, the only way to “visit” the museum is through scattered digital remains, including a photo archive contributed by WikiCommons users and a Google virtual tour. These fragments are mobilized to perform a ‘digital séance,’ negotiating new sites of techno-political struggle.

Minor Inscriptions, 2025, 15 min 16 sec
Minor Inscriptions investigates the invisible borders imposed by martial law in Jaffa between 1948 and 1950. Using archival documents, maps, testimonies, and video fragments, the work traces boundaries that have vanished physically yet remain embedded in current spatial, technological, and political infrastructures, actively shaping the present. It reflects on forms of “bureaucratic violence,” where control is administered through invisibility, enforced via protocols and permits—daily practices that regulate movement and access. Although martial law officially ended, its logic persists, continuing to structure contemporary urban life.

Ofri Cnaani (*1975) is an artist and researcher working across performance and media. She creates artworks and writes about data and coloniality in cultural institutions, somatic knowledge in the age of networked spatiality, and performance as a model for developing critical technology. Cnaani is a visiting scholar at the Institute of Visual Culture, TU Wien, Austria, and a research fellow at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) at the University of Amsterdam. Since 2021, Cnaani has co-organised Choreographic Devices, a three-day choreographic symposium at ICA, London.