Drenched in Salt
Total duration: 31:33 minutes Drenched in Salt is a film screening programme curated by students of MA Curating & Collections (MACC) in Chelsea College of Arts, University of London. The title of the programme references the poem, Drenched, written by Palestinian poet Dr. Refaat Alareer who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the 6th of December 2023. Through this poem, Alareer describes the death and violence on Palestinian bodies and his overwhelming grief. Salt is used in many cultures and rituals as a tool to cleanse, protect and preserve, but being ‘drenched in salt’ can also sting, hurt or burn. Embodying Mariame Kaba’s call to action, ‘Hope is a Discipline’, Drenched in Salt confronts the reality of the Palestinian genocide, reminding us of the ongoing suffering occurring to thousands of innocent civilians, while the world watches. As Dr. Džuverović discusses in her curatorial essay, ‘Born of a Stubborn Hopefulness, A World Where Many Worlds Fit’, hope is used as an invitation to act, gain knowledge, awareness, clarity and build solidarity, and in this case, through an agonistic approach. Responding to the 60th October Salon’s question of ‘What’s Left?’, MACC presents a programme of two selected films from the October Salon collection, featuring Artur Żmijewski’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’ (2009) that tells the story of Palestinians’ suffering, resilience and resistance amidst the brutality of Israel’s attacks on Gaza in 2009, mirroring the same images of violence we witness live today. Alongside this work, we present ‘I Will Never Talk about the War Again’ (2011) by Adela Jušić and Lana Čmajčanin, reinforcing the understanding of colonial power structures and their very real consequences. We do not aim to provide solutions, but to start reflection, conversation and action. Drenched in Salt is curated by Nis Azmee Murat, Yining Bai, Mengze Geng, Riccardo Greco, Maria Herrero Tejada, Yaqi Liang, Wanjing Lin, Heyue Lu, Wenyan Ma, Charmaine Wah, Xingcheng Xu, and Lilian Zancajo-Lugo.
