...writing
The Animal Husband, 2024
Vampires in Space, 2022
“Once the imagination is unshackled, liberation is limitless.” This quote from Octavia's Brood, a collection of “Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements”, succinctly explains the intrinsic link marginalised identities have with fantasy. Telling stories gives us space to imagine a different world, or offers up identities we can hide ourselves in. Vampires have often been linked with queerness, from the 1872 lesbian vampire Gothic novella Carmilla, to the (cancelled) 2022 lesbian vampire Netflix series First Kill. Vampires in Space builds on this trope, using what the artist Pedro Neves Marques calls “scientific autofiction” to explore “gender identity, non-nuclear families, queer reproduction, and also the role of intimacy and mental health today.”
Vampires in Space is the Official Portuguese Representation for the 59th Venice Biennale. Curated by João Mourão and Luís Silva, it resides in the Palazzo Franchetti, a stunning example of Venetian Gothic architecture. You enter the building and are immediately greeted by a rich interior. Every element has a considered beauty to it. No corner is forgotten. It’s a contrast to the exhibition that awaits, but not a sharp contrast: a contrast that gently wraps itself around the tall domed ceilings and grand wooden rooms, shrouding the interior with the possibility of the future. Between the historical setting and the futuristic exhibition design (made in collaboration with Diogo Passarinho Studio), it is hard to know whether we are viewing the films as voyeurs of the past, or if the characters are peering at us from the future. The exhibition design goes beyond the standard hard bench- for one of the films, there are upholstered curved seats that you lie on, like space age sun loungers. It is a subtle addition, but one that frames the exhibited films adeptly. It also increases the accessibility of the piece, something that lamentably seems to be an afterthought for the presentation of art films.
There are three films, which are 20 minutes, 35 minutes and 20 minutes respectively. They depict a family of vampires with their own individual histories and dreams, travelling through the stars to an earth-like planet. It is not immediately clear what order you are to watch the films in, but at the end it becomes clear that they are deliberately made so that there is no clear beginning or end, even within each individual film. As with many exhibited art films, there is no way of knowing at what point you have entered, so there is little to do but sit with that lack of knowledge until it becomes clearer. I usually vehemently dislike this about art films- I like to view something in the order it was put together, from beginning to end, and often wish there was a progress bar for all art films. In this case, I ended up appreciating the lack of knowledge. It felt, in a very small way, like it reflected the endlessness of the journey these vampires undertook, venturing into the unknown.
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