Aichi Triennale 2019

Ouroboros is a serpent that eats its own tail, forming a ring that symbolizes death and resurrection. In this film, which begins in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, a man wanders through Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert, the ancient Italian cities of Matera and Martina Franca, and a 13th-century castle towering over Brittany, France. The cycle of encounters, separations, and oblivion that the man repeatedly goes through overlaps with the history of destruction and regeneration in Gaza. The forward and backward movement of time is juxtaposed with the bombed and devastated land and urban landscapes that have been preserved for centuries. Without communicating large volumes of information about Gaza, and resisting facile discourse, Alsharif shows viewers that history can seem senseless, and cannot be judged from a single point of view, thus revealing that it is not fixed knowledge but rather visceral experience.