MIF has an inspirational forerunner in the shape of commissioning organisation Artangel. For MIF11, the two organisations worked with artists Anri Sala and Šejla Kamerić – the pair created 1395 Days Without Red, two powerful films about the siege of Sarajevo. Atmospheric and haunting, the films follow a young woman as she moves through the city, while an orchestra rehearsing Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, the ‘Pathétique’, provides an aural backdrop. Audiences at the Whitworth watched transfixed as this beautiful woman ran for her life through the war-ravaged streets.

A collection of Artangel’s previous film commissions ran alongside 1395 Days without Red, among them Tony Oursler’s droll son et lumière after dark in Whitworth Park and Atom Egoyan’s mordantly humorous Steenbeckett, a labyrinth of 16mm film whirring endlessly through a darkened gallery. Both commissions played to record audiences at the Whitworth.

‘All atmosphere and place, the invocation of fear and spirit, relived moments, loss and hope. Both films are a kind of return, a doubling of memory and presence’ The Guardian

1395 Days Without Red commissioned by Artangel with Manchester International Festival, the Whitworth (Manchester), Fundació Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam), enabled by Han Nefkens, H+F patronage, Festival d’Automne (Paris), Arts Council England, European Cultural Foundation, Film Fund Sarajevo, Marian Goodman Gallery (New York) and Hauser & Wirth (London & Zurich). Co-produced by Artangel and SCCA/pro.ba.

Projections produced by Artangel, the Whitworth and Manchester International Festival.

The Artangel Collection is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.