Dani Gal
Book of the Machines (2023)
Dark Continent (2023)
Video / Commissioned work
Book of the Machines, courtesy of the artist
Dates
21.9.–15.10.2023
Location
Demon Radio
Graz
Part of
Demon Radio
Production specifics
Book of the Machines
Commissioned by steirischer herbst ʼ23
Produced by Dani Gal in coproduction with steirischer herbst ʼ23
With the kind support of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and Artis
Dark Continent
Commissioned by steirischer herbst ʼ23
Produced by Kirberg Motors and Dani Gal in coproduction with steirischer herbst ʼ23
With the kind support of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and Artis
Book of the Machines (2023)
Book of the Machines, Dani Galʼs new film, explores the fear of and fascination with the other by looking at automatons, primitive mechanical robots popular in the 19th century. Close-ups of these exoticized figures and their racial stereotypes are accompanied by excerpts from Samuel Butler’s novel Erewhon (1872), which describes a society that has banned all machines after recognizing that they might take over the world. This resonates with today’s debates on AI and its potentially demonic powers.
Dark Continent (2023)
Dani Gal’s new minifeature deals with the racial phobias resulting from the colonial imaginary and their transmission through music. His film reenacts a case study from Martinican psychiatrist and anti-colonial writer Frantz Fanonʼs book Black Skin, White Masks (1952): a young White French woman suffers from a nervous disorder triggered by the sound of African drums—prohibited by colonial regimes in Africa because they were suspected of carrying signals of rebellion.
Retrospective
Retrospective