Basak Senova: Mirror Project – Kunsthalle Wien

• Venue: Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier

• Address: Vienna, Austria

• Date and Time: Wednesday, November 18, 2026, at 19:00

• Price: Free, no registration required.

• Host: Kunsthalle Wien

• Collaborators: The Atlas (of Creative Mechanisms): [Curating–Conducting], Istanbul Modern (Istanbul), Kunsthaus Dahlem (Berlin), Liljevalchs Konsthall (Stockholm), Nationalmuseum für moderne Kunst (Zagreb), The Art Rooms, ARUCAD (Kyrenia), CVAR Centre of Visual Arts and Research (Nikosia), and the Reykjanes Art Museum (Reykjavík).

• Artists: Ali Cherri, Nisrine Boukhari, Marcus Neustetter, Almagul Menlibeyeva, Cristiana de Marchi, Egle Oddo, Emilija Škarnulytė, Francesco Bellina, Hera Büyüktasciyan, Herrana Addisu, The Icelandic Love Corporation, Isa Rosenberger, Jesper Just, Johan Thom, Larissa Sansour – Søren Lind, Marja Helander, The ZoNE, Maria Lantz, Oya Silbery, Rojda Tugrul, Ramesch Daha, Superflex, Theresa Traore Dahlberg, Wael Shawky, and William Kentridge.

• Activity Description: Kunsthalle Wien invites you to a film screening and book presentation with Basak Senova as part of the "Mirror Project." This event is the third chapter of the project, which was realized in collaboration with eight European institutions and curated by Basak Senova and Jonatan Habib Engqvist. The project is part of Agrigento Italian Capital of Culture 2025 and focuses on the theme of "Water."

  The film screening includes:

  • Ali Cherri: The Watchman (2023, 26 minutes): Set in Cyprus, this film follows Sergeant Bulut, who spends long nights in a remote watchtower awaiting an enemy that never arrives. The film explores the psychological and ideological burden of duty, how the logic of war persists without active confrontation, and how inherited narratives of threat shape identity.
  • Nisrine Boukhari: The State of Water (2024, 22 minutes): A visual and poetic interpretation of the separation of space and time through fragmented dialogues between three figures: Past, Present, and Future. The interplay of light, shadow, and water serves as a metaphor for the dissolution of identity, memory, and structure.
  • Marcus Neustetter: The Ashes (2024, 3 minutes): Returning to the waters where he scattered his father's ashes seven years prior, Neustetter confronts memory and absence. His gestures of tracing attempt to capture the intangible, the changing horizon, the rhythms of the ocean, and the permanence of loss. The work, in collaboration with musicians Micca Manganye and Anathi Conjwa, transforms private grief into a shared call for emotional connection.

  The event will also feature an introduction by Basak Senova and a Q&A session with her. The "Mirror Project" explores the Mediterranean region's unique understanding of imagination, with water as a unifying motif. The project also resulted in a book published by ARUCAD Press, weaving together elements of Agrigento, water, films, photographs, and music, narrated from the perspective of a stray cat named Zurfarari.

• Language: German (introduction and Q&A), films likely in original language with subtitles (not specified).