Ginan Seidl’s essayistic splitscreen film/three channel installation ‘ج ن ن’ is based on family conversations between the artist
artist during a trip to Iraq and intensive research on Jinn. The Jinn are ephemeral entities that are deeply interwoven into the culture of Iraq.* The 2-channel video installation is a visual journey through the desert of Iraq, from Ur via Babylon to the secluded living rooms in Baghdad. It fragmentarily questions a culture and society that has been torn apart by ongoing wars, civil wars, repression and terrorism in recent decades. Cosmovision is linked with historical events and private experiences. While the work carries out an experimental arrangement from the outside and attempts to comprehend these experiences, it simultaneously circles around the void of the unspeakable, the in-between, on a personally affected level – bouncing off its vehemence.
* Jinn are mentioned both in the Qur’an and in pre-Islamic texts and appear in very different forms and guises. Jinn are also known to be able to give people special powers. They are responsible for healing, but also for causing a person to lose their mind. Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq from 1979-2004, was said to have communicated with seven Jinn and a team of magicians and Jinn were his political advisors.
