After her feature film Kala azar, winner of the 2017 Feature Expanded Distribution Award and recently winner of the Filmfest Sundsval, and the short Lacerate presented at Lo schermo dell’arte 2020, this latest video work by Greek artist Janis Rafa again has a dog as protagonist. A dark shot shows a large mastiff locked inside an old car. We hear and see his breathless panting that gradually tarnishes the windows of the car, while his whining never turns into a bark. Rafa connects this image to those of the first Soviet space flights in which dogs were sent into orbit aboard spacecraft. But the state of anxiety that this very short and exhausting wait for the dog transmits also alludes to the post-pandemic period characterized by limited freedom of movement and uncertainty about the future.

Athens 1984, lives and works between Amsterdam and Athens. Her works have been presented at

international museums, institutions and festivals, including: EYE Film Museum, Amsterdam (2020, 2016); Centraal Museum Utrecht (2019); Internationales Kunstlerhaus Villa Concordia, Bamberg (2018); Manifesta 12, Palermo (2018); 56th Venice Biennale (2015); Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (2015). His first feature film, Kala azar, won numerous awards, including: 2021 Filmfest Sundsval; 2020 KNF Award Tiger Competition, International Film Festival Rotterdam; Special Mention - Young Talent Competition, Hong Kong IFF.

Selected Filmography
2021 The Fear of Leaving the Animal Forever Forgotten Under the Ground; Requiem 3 2020 Lacerate; Kala azar 2018 Take 11: What Remains Is a Wound Disembodied 2016 The Thin Crust of Earth; There She Blows; Untitled (Callas)

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