TANGLED UP IN YOU

Tangled Up in You (Ineinander Verstrickt) tells the story of an unusual encounter. During a design workshop, women from diverse cultural and age groups get to know each other. Among them are Mahshid, a young Iranian woman who fled her home country with her son Radmehr. Marieme, who left Senegal to be able to feed her six children. Cheshmeh from Iran, who fights for women's rights and Mariam from Georgia, who seeks artistic freedom. While they wait for decisions on their asylum applications the women from the arrival centre design up-cycled outfits together with long-established Bamberg women like the once knitting-enthusiast 91-year-old Renate, whose hands don't work anymore, and Anette, who passes on boxes of knitted mementos from her family. Throughout the time the women teach each other to knit they tell each other stories. In this way, intimate friendships gradually develop in the open workshop alongside unusual individual pieces.

Does art have an effect on non-artistic reality and, if so, to what degree can art shape society and politics? 

For their film, Lena Maria Held and Marcus Nebe, spoke with diverse members of the Warsaw art scene, such as the visual artist Zuzanna Janin, the illustrator Luka Rayski or the photographer Rafal Milach, about their efforts to impact Poland’s political environment through the use of art as a political tool. Beginning with its 2015 victory of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Poland, the National Conservative Party "Law and Justice" (PiS), gradually undermined Poland’s democratic institutions by disrupting the separation of powers. As Polish citizens sensed the shortcomings of the new government, resistance reached the streets. Art Against Politics documents the visual and creative interventions of local artists, who were drawn to respond to the political turmoil and contribute to the social resistance movement through the means available to them.

A FILM BY Lena Maria Held & Marcus Nebe with Luka Rayski, Zuzanna Janin, Witek Orski, Rafał Milach, Justyna Kowalska, ŻUBRZYCE, Wojchiech Korkuc, Karolina Bregula & Agnieszka Rayzacher.

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