Hometown by Metahaven (Daniel van der Velden, Vinca Kruk), 2018

A looped 30-minute film describes a fictional city where nothing is certain, except for permanent uncertainty. Between derelict buildings, street markets, interrupted real estate projects, and slaughterhouses, two protagonists—Lera and Ghina—reveal their attachment to the hometown, having somehow internalized its contradictions. Metahaven do not mean to overcome the genuinely disquieting uneasiness of today’s reality, neither criticize the conditions that led humanity there. Instead, they suggest embracing and exploring hometown’s environment, where everything looks familiar, yet nothing is what it is or used to be. Film commissioned and produced by the Sharjah Art Foundation for Sharjah Biennial 13 Tamawuj, 2017 with additional production by Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam.