Dani Gal

Screening and talk

July 1, 2025, 7–9pm

Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Vortragshalle
Artur-Ladebeck-Straße 5, 33602 Bielefeld

Moderation: Prof. Dr. Paul Mecheril (Universität Bielefeld)

Video 4k 25min

Dark continent, Written and Directed by Dani Gal, 25min, 2023 Dark Continent deals with the racial phobias resulting from the colonial imaginary and their transmission through music. His film is an adaptation of a case study from Martinican psychiatrist and anti-colonial writer Frantz Fanonʼs book Black Skin, White Masks (1952): a young White French woman suffers from a nervous disorder triggered by the sound of African drums—prohibited by colonial regimes and slave owners because they were suspected of carrying signals of rebellion.

Lecture

Gal’s lecture following the screening of his recent film Dark Continent will focus on the structure of the film in relation to its historical and literary sources, discussing the dynamics of cultural intolerance within oppressive systems and how these structures infiltrate psychological spaces and manifest in fear and alienation, particularly through sound and music.

Dani Gal (1975, Jerusalem) is a visual artist and filmmaker. His work investigates the production of memory and collective history. His films and sound installations reconstruct and reconfigure preexisting documentary materials, blending them with fiction, and address current political events. They have been shown widely, including at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); New Museum, New York (2012); The Jewish Museum, New York (2014); Berlinale Forum Expanded (2014); Kunsthaus Zürich (2015); Kunsthalle Wien (2015); Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017); and Centre Pompidou, Paris (2018 and 2023). Gal lives in Berlin.

In 2024-25 Gal was a fellow at The Centre for Advanced Study inherit. heritage in transformation is a BMBF-funded Käte Hamburger Kolleg based at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.