Freiluft-Kurzfilmprogramm

Melike Karas’s exhibition*Whispers*, on view at the Kunsthaus Hamburg through August 23, invites visitors into a fragile garden. The artist has created a sensory space where identity can be experienced as something in constant flux. The contemporary short film program*WHEN BOUGAINVILLES WILL HAVE TAKEN OVER*ties into this theme.

How do we see, feel, and remember in the garden? What stories, symbols, and meanings do plants carry within them? And what happens when nature reclaims urban space? Four experimental short films explore these questions in unexpected ways.

In Nour Ouayda’s*The Secret Garden*(2023), a city is suddenly overrun by mysterious trees, plants, and flowers, revealing nature as an unpredictable and resistant force. Jodie Mack’s*Lover, Lovers, Loving, Love* (2025) accompanies the dance of blossoms and patterns with experimental cinematic effects, celebrating the beauty of transience. In*Daphne was a torso ending in leaves* (2023), Catriona Gallagher uses bay leaves to explore the ancient myth of Daphne and its lingering effects. The program concludes with Billy Roisz’s*The Garden of Electric Delights*(2025), a surreal tapestry of colors and the sounds of electronic interference.

The program is curated by Maike Mia Höhne (Artistic Director of the Hamburg Short Film Festival) and will be presented outdoors in the courtyard of the former Viktoria Barracks in Hamburg-Altona.