Mieke Vanmechelen (Ireland)   Die Vrijheid (That Freedom).

 

 This short film is a private reflection on childhood, human relationships and the magic of the natural world. Presented from a submerged perspective the artist’s simple narrative is related in her mother tongue. The work attempts to operate on a register analogous to music and offers a glimpse into an embodied contradictory sense of displacement and belonging.

Mieke Vanmechelen was born in Antwerp in 1974 and studied at Trinity College Dublin (BA 1992-96) and Crawford College of Art & Design (MA 2014).

Working at the intersection of experimental moving-image media and documentary film, Vanmechelen’s practice is grounded in place and informed by intimate knowledge and lived experience. Her work explores the idea of organic interdependence of the individual human body with the community of human and non-human life around it.

Recent exhibitions and screenings: HOME, Glucksman Gallery, Cork (2021); Highlanes Gallery Open Submission; CutLog, SSA+VAS OPEN, Scottish Royal Academy, Edinburgh; RAGFF New York (2020); Recent awards: Arts Council of Ireland Film Project Award (2021); Fire Station Artists’ Studios Digital Media Bursary Award and Residency Award (2021); Arts Council of Ireland, Film Bursary (2020); Arts Council of Ireland, Professional Development Award (2020); Recent shortlists have been the Miller-Zillmer Foundation Residency and the Janet Mullarney Prize (2020).