REDDENING

15 Min | Sinem Kayacan | Finland

REDDENING is a genre-bender arthouse fantasy film.

Makers invite us to a strange world engulfed in delicious visuals and exalting music, bursting with joy; wonder, passion, tenderness, and bodily liquids. Performers take us by the hand to go into a deeply layered yet lighthearted journey with them.

The title REDDENING refers to the final stage of alchemy; Rubedo, in which the alchemical transformation takes place. Historically, the practice of alchemy aimed turning base metals into silver and gold, but further, to reach Magnum Opus; divine illumination, heavenly bliss and the elixir of life. Different disciplines considered the alchemical transformation to take place in the stratum relevant to them; material, psyche, spirit. Nonetheless, for the transformation to occur, alchemists had to go through a transmutation themselves.

The film explores how a film, as a sensuous object, can pleasure; repulse, nurture, and overall transmute the body of the audience.

Sinem is a visual artist/filmmaker, originally from Istanbul and based in Helsinki.
She holds an MA degree in Filmmaking and is currently a doctoral candidate in the field of Contemporary Art. Her practice and research focus on embodied and sensual forms of knowledge production as well as the concepts and methods of performance.

Her works have been screened in film festivals, gallery settings as well as digital channels such as NOWNESS, and internationally exhibited in platforms such as the Research Pavilion in Venice. She has been awarded various multi-year research and artistic work grants.