MYTH AND MERCURY and other films by Rosa Barba

Archives are one of the central, recurring themes in the work of the artist Rosa Barba. And for her, archives and the practice of archiving are much more than a matter of content. The focus of her works is less on succession than on juxtaposition, and Barba’s thinking doesn’t follow linear lines, but rather an archeological understanding of time where past and future overlap and are stuck on top of each other. She records inscriptions in landscapes with her camera as an understanding of modern archives as well as films with starting point in archives which are not finalized yet.

MYTH AND MERCURY was filmed across various locations around the Mediterranean. Beginning at the Gramsci Library in Palermo, following a fishermen’s procession at sea, diving down to a seabed neutrino telescope and exploring archives about the transformation of agriculture, migration, and the political landscape of the Mediterranean over the past centuries – the film reflects on how we might understand these interconnections and their evolving meanings in the future. It envisions the Mediterranean as both a futuristic blueprint and an idea in continual transformation.

The program will be supplemented with three other films: INSIDE THE OUTSET: EVOKING A SPACE OF PASSAGE (2021) is part of a site-specific work. It was first shown in autumn 2021 at the opening of an amphitheater embedded in the landscape of the UN Buffer Zone. The amphitheater is meant to be accessible from both the occupied Turkish Cypriot side as well as the Greek Cypriot side, and to be used as an open-air cinema, a stage, and a meeting place. DISSEMINATE AND HOLD (2016) investigates human-made geographies and landscapes and how they are enmeshed with political agendas and utopian visions, as well as the traces left behind by history. The film introduces the Minhocão (or “Big Worm”)—an elevated highway that runs through the heart of São Paulo. SEND ME SKY, HENRIETTA (2018) is a film homage to the work of the American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868–1921), who remained largely unrecognized during her lifetime. Leavitt’s most important work came out of analyzing photographs of pulsating stars in distant galaxies.

Program:

MYTH AND MERCURY, Italy, France, Germany 2025, 35 mm, 22 min., original version
INSIDE THE OUTSET: EVOKING A SPACE OF PASSAGE, Cyprus, Deutschland 2021, digital file, 32 min., original version
DISSEMINATE AND HOLD, Brazil, Germany 2016, digital file, 21 min., original version with English subtitles
SEND ME SKY, HENRIETTA, USA, Germany 2018, digital file, 7 min., silent

Rosa Barba, born in Agrigento, Italy, and based in Berlin, Germany, explores themes of permanence, impermanence, reality, and fiction through films, sculptures, installations, publications, and performances. Her work examines how space is influenced by temporal and linguistic constructs, challenging traditional narratives and semiotics. Barba deconstructs cinematic elements, merging physical materials with abstract concepts like time and sound. Her art often focuses on natural landscapes and human interventions, blending historical records with personal narratives. Her work is part of numerous international collections, and she has exhibited at prestigious venues such as MoMA, MAXXI, Centre Pompidou, or Tate Modern. Barba was awarded the Zürich Art Prize (2026), Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2025), the Calder Prize (2020), and the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco's International Prize for Contemporary Art (2015).

Marc Siegel is Professor of Film Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. His current research focuses on anti-Palestinian racism. He is the editor of the bilingual book What’s Underground About Marshmallows? Texts by and about Jack Smith (Alexander Verlag, 2026) and co-editor of Serge Daney and Queer Cinephilia (meson press, 2024). He is also a member of the Berlin-based CHEAP art collective and the Association of Palestinian and Jewish Academics in German-speaking countries (PJA).