J-N-N | ج-ن-ن

by Ginan Seidl

Ginan Seidl’s essayistic splitscreen film/three channel installation ‘ج ن ن’ is based on family conversations during a trip to Iraq and an intensive research on Jinn. The Jinn are ephemeral entities that are deeply interwoven into the culture of Iraq.* The film/ installation is a visual journey through the desert of Iraq, from Ur via Babylon to the secluded living rooms in Baghdad. It fragmentarily questions a culture and society that has been torn apart by ongoing wars, civil wars, repression and terrorism in recent decades. Cosmovision is linked with historical events and private experiences. While the work carries out an experimental arrangement from the outside and attempts to comprehend these experiences, it simultaneously circles around the void of the unspeakable, the in-between, on a personally affected level – bouncing off its vehemence.