VIDEO:Janis Rafa-Feed me. Cheat me. Eat me
Janis Rafa creates disquieting, fable-like films, videos, installations, and cinematic narratives that place people in relation to non-human beings – animals, plant life, both alive and dead. Common to her narratives are ritual forms of parting with or coming into proximity with dead beings, including burial, cremation, digging, and archaeology. Her films may be fantastical, but they fall far from an escapist fantasy.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Eye Filmmuseum Archive
The Greek artist and filmmaker Janis Rafa (Janis Rafailidou_ presents her solo exhibition “Feed me. Cheat me. Eat me”. Several works premiere during the exhibition, including the short film “Landscape Depressions” (2023) and a new multi-screen video installation, Spoken language rarely features in her evocative films and video installations; she focuses instead on the silent presence of non-humans, allowing them to become the leading force within her poetic compositions. Her narratives emphasise animalistic instincts, untamed behaviours and inabilities to coexist, alongside human fears, expectations and failure. Janis Rafa’s practice forms a wordless ode to stray and domesticated dogs, roadkill, hunted prey, animals in factory farming and other victims of late- capitalist society. Her works blend fiction with the mundane, highlighting structures of power, domination and control. The locations she chooses lie on the urban fringes, post-industrial sites, abandoned buildings and decaying agricultural landscapes. Among the ruins of these worlds, she explores themes such as affection for the non-human body, interspecies relations and dealing with loss. Rafa’s visual language is filmic and seductive. Yet her work is disquieting: it prompts the viewer to consider pressing questions, such as how humans relate to one another and to the world around them. Her latest works focus on the tension between care for and exploitation of animals and landscapes. The exhibition title – Janis Rafa – Feed me. Cheat me. Eat me. – encapsulates mankind’s capricious attitude towards nature, as well as the underlying sense of melancholia and whimsicalness that is evident throughout her oeuvre. Moving image forms the core of the exhibition, but Rafa is also creating sculptures and neon installations specially for Eye. Through poetic wordplay and the re-appropriation of industrial structures designed to restrain farm animals, these new works refer to playful sensuality and physical contact. Rafa’s subjects are positioned within unusual cinematographic compositions that blend the fictional with the mundane. In these timeless spaces, she highlights structures of power, domination and control. The locations she chooses lie on the urban fringes, post-industrial sites, abandoned buildings and decaying agricultural landscapes. Among the ruins of these worlds, she explores themes such as affection for the non-human body, interspecies relations and dealing with loss. Her work forms a wordless ode to stray and domesticated dogs, roadkill, hunted prey, animals in factory farming and other victims of late-capitalist society.
Photo: Janis Rafa, Landscape Depressions, 2023. Film still, single-channel video with sound, 25 min. Courtesy the Artist, © Janis Rafa
Info: Eye Filmmuseum, IJpromenade 1, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Duration: 14/10/2023-7/1/2024, Days & Hours: Sun-Thu 10:00-22:00, Fri-Sat 10:00-23:00, www.eyefilm.nl/
