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Ubundu

Film installation
16mm transferred to 2K video, 4:3, color, sound
17′, loop
English, Dutch spoken
2019
A film poem filmed at Antwerp Zoo echoes diasporic voices of displacement. On being a foreigner. On dehumanization and language.

On being a foreigner. On dehumanization, which always begins with language.

UBUNDU is a film poem by Jelena Jureša, inspired by the writings of W. G. Sebald and his observations on the ‘ugliness of Belgium’—a phrase referring to a collective amnesia and the widespread complicity of Belgians in the exploitation of Congolese wealth.

Filmed at the Antwerp Zoo, UBUNDU centers on the okapi, an animal first exhibited there in 1919. The portrayal of this creature—which can only breed in captivity outside the Democratic Republic of Congo—is interwoven with a voice-over that enacts, shouts, and sings the wounds of displacement and non-belonging.

In his most notable novels, Austerlitz and The Rings of Saturn, Sebald navigates landscapes marked by radicalized violence, drawing a line between the Holocaust and colonialism. Antwerp Zoo and the European railway system hold particular significance in his work: the expansion of the railways facilitated capitalist growth and transnational transport, becoming a symbol of modernity, while also enabling mass deportations and genocide.

Due to her intent to include Sebald’s phrase ‘the ugliness of Belgium’ in the film, Jureša was denied official permission to film the okapi at the Antwerp Zoo.

Ubundu a film still by Jelena Juresa
Contour Biennale 9, photo: Lavinia Wouters

Credits

A film by Jelena Jureša
Written by: Asa Mendelsohn and Jelena Jureša
Director of Photography: Sébastien Cros
Assistance to principal photography: Jasmijn Cedee
Voice: Evelien van den Broek
Sound recording and sound design: Slobodan Bajić
Editing: Jelena Jureša
Producers / for Contour Biennale: Fleur van Muiswinkel, Alyssa Decq
Color grading: Josja van Zadelhoff (Charbon Studio)
Mastering: Charbon Studio
‘Ubundu’ is commissioned by Contour Biennale 9 and Argos, centre for audiovisual arts. Supported by KASK School of Arts and HoGent.
In the public collection of MU.ZEE.