A Play for Public 

2K video, 25 min, video installation, stereo sound, colour, 2021

A Play for Public, a verbal, visual and spatial poem by Vida Kashani and Amir Komelizadeh, gently articulates the collective mourning of the loss of public and public imagination in contemporary neo-liberal urban life.

Set within an anonymous urban landscape, the film follows a series of encounters, gestures and movements between characters caught within the repetitive structures of everyday life. Through wandering, repetition, role-playing and fragments of language, the work unfolds as a search for a poem.

The poem gradually emerges through the film itself—through its images, movements, sounds and rhythms. In the final one-take, words, bodies and space converge, bringing the poem into being while creating a sense of repetition, attempt and being stuck.

The work reflects on the city as both a physical and psychological space, asking what happens to collective imagination when public space becomes increasingly regulated, privatized and shaped by neoliberal urban life.

Credits

Written and directed by, Vida Kashani & Amir Komelizadeh
Poem, Julia-Beth Harris
Music, Raphael Vanoli
Cast, Lola Diaz Cantoni & Julia-Beth Harris

Supported by

VidAmir Foundation
Cultuurfonds
Stichting Bekker-la Bastide-Fonds
Schuurman Schimmel van Outeren Fonds