A deeply distressing programme featuring The One Minutes series ‘Uncomfortable Encounters’ curated by Josefin Arnell and ‘Buurthuis 2’ directed by Josefin Arnell.
The One Minutes Series ‘Uncomfortable Encounters’, curated by Josefin Arnell (2025, 23 min.)
Uncomfortable Encounters brings together works that move between the banal and the brutal, from the absurdities of everyday life to the structural violences that shape it. These works expose situations of unease, moments that are laughable, painful, humiliating, confusing, or deeply distressing.
A girl is unstoppable, laughing out of fear or joy in a rollercoaster machine. A doll is attracted to a dog and its poop. A trans body reenacts Jesus’ crucifixion in remembrance of other LGBTQIA+ people who suffered violence and death. A group of cleaners is fighting over a pile of garbage. Four dancers perform Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, signalling that something is wrong. Two art students play police. A politician explains Somali politics. Someone drives a car through occupied land. A girl runs up a hill that never ends…
Uncomfortable Encounters asks: Who gets to feel comfortable, and at whose expense?
Trailer: https://theoneminutes.org/
Buurthuis 2, Josefin Arnell (2024, Netherlands, 16 min.)
Buurthuis 2 is a fantasy film realized with the community center De Witte Boei in Amsterdam’s Wittenburg neighbourhood. Visitors and staff take on the roles of vampires, wizards, and zombies who are entangled in a real-estate development scheme to turn the residential neighborhood into a luxury spa resort.
Anchored by a Dutch fairytale about the pitfalls of preposterous wealth, the plot and characters were developed in scriptwriting workshops together with the artist. In the process, Josefin Arnell explores the social fabric of a place that is highly specific and at the same time faces the same problems as many other communities.
“Arnell questions what it means to be a ‘good’ citizen. The artist uses storytelling to fire the visitor’s imagination and highlight the reality of life in the neighborhood.”
— Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The One Minutes releases new series of one-minute films exploring our current time through moving images.
Send in your videos and participate in the project!
http://theoneminutes.org/participate
Video still: Buurthuis 2, Josefin Arnell, 2024 (© the artist, courtesy by The One Minutes Foundation)