Human Frames @ Asian Hot Shots Festival Berlin

The Human Frames program presented in Berlin is a special panorama selection that announces a bigger curatorial film project of the same name. The Human Frames cycle presents a series of ten film programs examining the human condition through experimental film and video art. Comprising of both contemporary and archive images from across Asia and Europe, this project is inspired by the ancient theory of humoralism as a framework by which to analyze certain aspects of the human character. It focuses on ten emotional states – melancholy, fear, anger, fanaticism, isolation, madness, euphoria, courage, desire, and mono no aware – and depicts the timeless and universal panoply of human tempers that lay beyond national, social and cultural affiliations.

In working with artists and curators from both Asia and Europe, Human Frames hopes, just like with humoralism, to span disparate practices and processes and to chart ideological convergence and divergence alike. It focuses on rarely seen and often marginal work, and touring internationally Human Frames aims to make these works accessible to a wider public. For Asian Hot Shots curators Silke Schmickl and Masayo Kajimura present a selection of works by Asian artists.