Shokouk (2023)
Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson
Shokouk, Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson, Iran/Russia/Canada, digital, 17 min, 2023
In Shokouk we overhear the gossip between a crowd gathered to observe a televised rocket launch, become acquainted with the fictional archival character Nikitin Nikifor, then join a karaoke event celebrating the inauguration of a Chinese infrastructure company in Uzbekistan before finally arriving in geostationary orbit aboard the Mir space station. The artists present a constellation of anachronistic narratives drawing upon a variety of references, including the teachings of Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli on the essence of time, their own research on the harmful environmental impacts of the space industry on local livelihoods, and the works of the 12th and 13th century astronomers and polymaths Omar Khayyam and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.
Streaming Details
This film is available to stream globally.
Program Partners
This film is co-presented with Artcite Inc. and Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto.
Image credits: all artworks, portraits, and stills courtesy the artists © Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson.
About the artist
Rouzbeh Akhbari (Iran/Canada) and Felix Kalmenson (Russia/Canada) are artists born, respectively, in Tehran, Iran, in 1992 and St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1987. Collaborating under the name Pejvak on films and multimedia installations since 2015, the artists pursue a multivalent, intuitive approach to research and living, placing themselves in convergence and entanglement with like-minded collaborators, histories, and geographies across time and place. Akhbari received his MVS from University of Toronto School of Architecture, Landscape, and Design (2018) and Kalmenson a B. Arch. & Urban Planning from University of Toronto (2011). Their work has been exhibited at numerous museums, galleries, and festivals worldwide, including São Paulo International Film Festival, Doclisboa, Sharjah Film Platform, White Room Foundation Moscow, Kasseler Dokfest, Tampere Film Festival, Villa Arson, Arkipel Jakarta International Documentary Experimental Film Festival, Bangkok Art Biennale, and Media City Film Festival, with solo exhibitions at State Silk Museum in Tbilisi and Si Shang Museum of Art in Beijing. They are the recipients of awards from Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and Tirana International Film Festival, and were long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in 2023. Akhbari and Kalmenson were artists-in-residence at Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht (2020–21). Their work is in the permanent collections of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art, Brussels. Both live and work in Toronto, Ontario.