Adrián Villar Rojas // The Most Beautiful Moment of War and The War of the Stars

Welcome to an exclusive screening of two films by the Argentinian-Peruvian artist Adrián Villar Rojas at the National Museum.

Villar Rojas reached international acclaim after his award-winning presentation at the Argentinian Pavilion during the Venice Biennale in 2011 and has exhibited his work around the world. The film screening is part of the program for the exhibit «The End of Imagination», his first solo exhibition at an institution in Norway – opening November 18th at the National Museum.

The films «The Most Beautiful Moment of War» (2014 – 17) and «The War of the Stars» (2018) are set in Yangji-ri, a village in the buffer zone of the demilitarized zone between South and North Korea. The residents – many of whom are in their 80s – belong to the generations living in the area after the Korean War. They play the main roles in the films and actively participate in documenting a local community whose history and memories are in danger of disappearing along with them. The project approaches this documentation of everyday life through the concept of «transfiction» and questions how an archive can be created without merely replicating established Western archival systems. Here fiction becomes a means to produce and gather information: When life in Yangji-ri is documented, they are simultaneously transformed, creating new documents, meanings and memories. This interplay between fiction and documentary – similar to the interplay between technology and nature – is central in Villar Rojas' artistic practice. 

Before the screening, curator at the National Museum, Ingvild Krogvig, will give a short introduction to Villar Rojas' work and his exhibit at the National Museum.

The screening is a collaboration between Films from the South and the National Museum.

Nasjonalmuseet