The Hidden Conference is a three-part series of filmic investigations in museum storages. All three films evoke the discussions one can imagine artworks in a museum’s storage spaces might have with one another. They become protagonists in a filmic narrative that unfolds before a handheld camera; their invisible nexuses and the condition of silent coexistence are enlivened besides scientific or chronological claims by the restless camerawork and the montage of textual fragments, filmic pictures and sound elements. The soundscape is an equal partner in supporting the fictionalization process.

This first part of the trilogy is set in an unidentified location (the storage area of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin) at an unspecified point in time in the future or in the past. It brings to light a situation that, although existing for years, has now taken on a certain degree of urgency. Nonetheless, the reason for the meeting is no longer known.

 

The Hidden Conference: About the Discontinuous History of Things We See and Don't See, 2010

35mm film, color, optical sound, 13:40 min

Images 1, 2, 3: Film still © Rosa Barba
Image 4: Installation view at carlier l gebauer, 2011 © Rosa Barba

The Hidden Conference: About the Discontinuous History of Things We See and Don’t See, 2010 has been on display at the following locations:

Gaasbeek Castle, Lennik, 2024

The Tanks at Tate Modern, London, 2023

Tate Modern, London, 2020

ARTER, Istanbul, 2019

Hamburger Bahnhof, 2016

ICA Boston, 2016

Sprengel Museum, 2012

Maxxi Museum, Rome, 2011

Arter, Istanbul, 2012

carlier gebauer, 2011


The Hidden Conference: About the Discontinuous History of Things We See and Don’t See, 2010 has been on display at the following locations:

ICA London, 2013

Gene Siskel Center, Chicago, 2013

Filmforum, Gorizia, 2013

Starr Auditorium, Tate Modern, London, 2010