Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship Of The Fools, 2012

A video- installation by Indian artist Iram Ghufran, who is currently on a residency at iaab, Basel. The work draws its title from Sebastian Brandt's satire 'Das Narrenschiff'. [dated June 2012]

A video- installation by Indian artist Iram Ghufran, who is currently on a residency at iaab, Basel. The work draws its title from Sebastian Brandt's satire 'Das Narrenschiff' published from Basel in 1494. The video uses images from the Basel State Archive and the archives of the Burgholzli Clinic, Psychiatry Department, Zurich University.

The Swiss Experience, Forum Schlossplatz, Aarau June 15 - 24, 2012

Works 
1] There Is Something In The Air, 2011DV/ 28'25/ Col & BW/ 
Sound Work developed during the Residency 
2] This Glass Refused To Be Fixed, 2012Broken glass, glue 
3] Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship Of The Fools, 2012DV/ 04'44/ Col/ Sound

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Project Brief:
Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship Of The Fools, 2012 A ship of fools had set sail from Basel sometime in the 15th century… its cargo of lunatics, renegades and renunciators destined to travel through centuries of philosophy, history and art… not landing on any particular shore, but always available as an allegory to draw from. 

A work in progress, 'Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship Of The Fools' emerges from a reflection on the medieval European practice, wherein cities and towns would get rid of the insane, and deviant population by casting them away on ships and boats, while at the same time, welcoming a cargo of foreign lunatics aboard other ships as entertainment. The work draws its title from Sebastian Brandt's satire 'Das Narrenschiff' published from Basel in 1494. A critique of the medieval Church, Das Narrenschiff is known for its woodcuts by Albrecht Durer, some of which may have inspired Bosch's famous 'Ship of Fools'. 

The video / installation includes a video projected on part of a canvas with paper boats made from Brandt's Das Narrenschiff, adrift on a black charcoal sea. The video also uses images from the Basel State Archive, photographs from the archives of the Burgholzli Clinic, now part of the Psychiatry Department of the Zurich University, images of art work by the clinically insane inmates of several hospitals and clinics of Switzerland from the 1850 onwards. 'Das Narrenschiff/ The Ship of Fools' is a travelogue, a reflection on the history of people who travelled on ships and sometimes went missing.
The artist: 
An award winning filmmaker, Iram Ghufran’s work largely emerges from various interdisciplinary practices - filmmaking, photography, research and writing. Her work has been shown in several international art and cinematic contexts. She was a member of the Sarai Media Lab from 2004 to 2011 and has been teaching photography at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia University. Iram’s first documentary There is Something in the Air, won her the National Award this year.