Ursula Biemann: Black Sea Files

About

Black Sea Files is a research project into Caspian oil geography: the world's oldest oil extraction zone. A giant new subterranean pipeline traversing the Caucasus will soon pump crude oil to the West. Circumventing the main powers in the region, the video sheds light on a multitude of secondary scenes - oil workers, farmers, refugees and prostitutes. Drawing on investigatory fieldwork as practiced by anthropologists, journalists and intelligence agents, Black Sea Files comments on the ways in which information and visual intelligence is detected, circulated or withheld. A fully illustrated catalogue, Mission Reports, published by Arnolfini and Bildmuseet, Sweden, will accompany the exhibition.