Invention of the Self

Identity – one of the great themes (sexual, national, ethnic, cultural, social, political, etc.) of our era. It's a theme so embedded in contemporary mainstream discourse that it can often seem overwhelming, especially in light of how the far right instrumentalises its most essentialist and reductionist understandings. It is also a theme that, to some extent, runs the risk of being so over-discussed that it may be hard to imagine a new angle to approach it. How, then, can we revitalize such a topic, which continues to generate controversy and polarization? Starting, perhaps, with an examination of the idea of ​​the self – from the individualistic, hyper-capitalist myth of "the self-made man" to the theory of Andrew Spira, whose term "invention of the self" inspired the title of this four-film programme, dedicated to examining how art and culture influence the perception of the self and the formation of identity. INVENTION OF THE SELF proposes an analysis of how identity is transformed by the stimuli around us, but also by the environment – whether we are talking about macro forces, skillfully explored by Basim Magdy in his symphony THE BIRDS CHOOSE THE CARDS and the Poggi-Vinel duo in HOW ARE YOU?, or we if are examining things more closely, for example, by looking at the reactions of our bodies in relation to what is happening in the world, as Fırat Yücel does in HAPPINESS, or how our lives come to be influenced by all sorts of circumstance and coincidences, as shows the autobiography of the greatest living British experimental filmmaker, BEING JOHN SMITH. (Flavia Dima)