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Computer Animation Anerkennung - Honorary Mention 2022

Unless

Deborah Joyce Holman, Yara Dulac Gisler
Unless is a collaborative work with Zurich-based artist Yara Dulac Gisler. Unless is an experimental docu-fiction, which follows five characters through mundane, ritualistic situations of Basel's industrial, eerie neighborhood of Dreispitz. The project emerged from my longer-term engagement and research into the figure of the trickster, who is characterized by their “political gestures, insofar as [they are] a tactic of apparent conformity while retaining some measure of self-empowerment; a means of working within the framework of power without fully subscribing to its ‘truths’.” (Jean Fisher)  

This figure is central to Unless, and was borne of the confrontation with what it means to perform for the camera as much of my work deals with strategies of refusals. Unless explores the potential of intimacy and illegibility along the borders of a group and its outside. Here, a group of young people forge a space-time that is characterised solely by the tricksters’ interactions that are built on intimacy and solidarity. This space is characterised by an ever lasting sunset, which signifies an ‘otherwise’ as it draws parallels to a generative space-time for those who create liveable bubbles, inhabitable spaces through elusivity, fugitivity, and fabulation. 

The film is presented as a three-channel video installation, playing as seamless loop.
A moving image project by Yara Dulac Gisler & Deborah Joyce Holman 
Performers: Yara Dulac Gisler, Deborah Joyce Holman, Mirco Joao Pedro, Cynthia Matumona, Suhyene Iddrisu 
Camera: Jumana Issa 
Director of picture: Jelena Luise 
Sound recordist: Ananda Schmidt 
Styling and Make-up (concept): Desmond Chan 
Hair and Make-up and styling assistants: Jahsiri Asabi-Shakir, Chaïm Vischel 
Production assistant: Caroline Honorien 
Set assistants: Joy Asumadu, Glenn Asumadu, Timon Essoungou, Imani Fux, Alice Lushima, Sera Ndlovu, KT Omole, Fatima Salum , Nahom Weldemehret 
Editing: Deborah Joyce Holman, Rodan Tekle (from Studio Junbi) 
Grading: Natacha Ikoli 
Score: Yara Dulac Gisler, Deborah Joyce Holman  
The Bells (Remix) – Bearcat: Yara Dulac Gisler, Deborah Joyce Holman, Dion McKenzie 
Mixing: Jackie Poloni  
Mastering: Russell E. L. Butler, Merlin Züllig 
Graphic design: Ann Kern 
Editing: subtitles: Imani Robinson, B. Covington Sam-Sumana 
Exterior eye: Jeremy Nedd 

Special thanks: Atelier Mondial, Ali-Eddine Abdelkhalek, Hochschule für Kunst und Gestaltung Basel, Julie Machin, Flavio Luca Marano, Ivy Monteiro, None Nissen, Uncle Naa Dom aka Fred Biney, David Nana Opoku Ansah, Philip Ortelli, Point de Vue Basel, Jonas Schaffter 

Commissioned by Explorers Film Club; With generous support from Pro Helvetia Stiftung and Jugendkulturpauschale Basel-Stadt.
Deborah Joyce Holman (GB/CH) is a multidisciplinary artist. Their work has been shown at the ICA London; Centre culturel suisse, Paris; Last Tango, Zurich (all 2022); 7th Athens Biennale; Damien & The Love Guru hosted by CFA Live, Milano; Cherish, Geneva; Yaby, Madrid; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva (all 2021); La Quadriennale di Roma (2020); Mikro, Zurich (2019); Fondation Entreprise Ricard, Paris (2019); Auto Italia, London (2019); Alienze, Lausanne (2018), among others. From 2020-2022 she worked at Auto Italia as Associate Director and as Associate Curator. They are the founding director of 1.1, Basel, which ran 2015-2020. Holman was the curator of the 2018 and 2019 annual group exhibitions for Les Urbaines, Lausanne. Yara Dulac Gisler (CH) is a Zurich-based artist.