Land X, 2022

 

Filmed from a room at the Oriental Hotel in central Hargeisa, Land X observes the city from a position of distance, enclosure, and uncertainty. The work is structured around a simple but unstable proposition: if this place does not exist, then the images cannot count as evidence; if it does, then the act of filming confirms its reality. Moving between the street below, the surrounding buildings, and the edges of military presence, the video approaches Somaliland as a territory caught between assertion and denial, presence and non-recognition. Over these images, radio voices accumulate in the register of news, political speech, and official statement, insisting on Somaliland’s existence, peace, and its claim to recognition. The film does not resolve the gap between what is said and what is seen. It stays with that gap instead, asking what kind of evidence an image can become when the place it records is itself refused.

 

 

23 min 41 sec

3-channel video installation

HD video, color, sound

 

Proofreading and Subtitles: Krzysztof Gutfrański

Color and Sound: Sarvenaz Mostofey

Language: English, Somali

Location: Hargeisa