Mieke Bal Featured in “Baggage Claims”

Sat, Sep 1 - Sun, Dec 9  2018

From September 1st until December 9th, Dutch filmmaker Mieke Bal will present her “Road Movie” as part of the exhibition “Baggage Claims” at the Richard E. Peeler Art Center in Greencastle, IN.

“Baggage Claims”

This exhibition presents the work of an international group of 18 artists who explore the impact of the vast scale of population mobility. While baggage has always symbolized migration and freedom, in the context of the current global atmosphere it has become an emblem of uncertainty, fear, and change. On an intimate level, baggage transports and holds personal belongings, and by implication is a rich metaphor for individual and family histories. The term baggage also carries significant psychological meaning, referring to the burdens or blessings of those things in life that cannot be left behind. Baggage Claims is the first exhibition to present a new body of work by contemporary artists who are examining these timely themes.

“Road Movie”

“Road Movie” is a 16-minute film created by Mieke Bal and Shahram Entekhabi in 2004. “Road Movie” is a one-shot film that features a man walking alongside a four-lane highway dangerously close to the cars, on the edge of a green median stripe of hollow road.

Who is Mieke Bal?

Mieke Bal was a professor at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is currently based at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis.

Bal is also a video artist, her internationally exhibited documentaries on migration include Separations, State of Suspension, Becoming Vera and the installation Nothing is Missing and are part of the Cinema Suitcase collective. With Michelle Williams Gamaker she made the feature film A Long History of Madness, a theoretical fiction about madness, and related exhibitions (2012). Her following project Madame B: Explorations in Emotional Capitalism, also with Michelle, is exhibited worldwide. She just finished a feature film and 5-screen installation on René Descartes and his infelicitously ending friendship with Queen Kristina of Sweden.

Occasionally she acts as an independent curator. Her co-curated exhibition 2MOVE traveled to four countries. She is currently preparing an exhibition for the Munch museum in Oslo.