German-Iranian artist and filmmaker Azin Feizabadi, who lives in Berlin, made this 73 minute film originally for the Museum am Ostwall in Dortmund. Alternating between autobiographical fact and fiction, “CRYPTOMNESIA“ is about a young immigrant living in Dortmund, interweaving scenes of everyday life with multiple flashbacks: how and when did the young protagonist Reinoldus first come to Dortmund, and what’s he doing here? As we watch him in a Dortmund club, the train station, by the lake with his friends, these scenes are repeatedly broken up by flashbacks from his past. In the voiceover he recounts his childhood odyssey across Europe with his mother and his impressions of this strange new world. Feizabadi’s autobiography cannot be wholly distinguished from the story of Reinoldus.

“CRYPTOMNESIA“ uses no “outside” perspective, but sticks to an unmediated subjective point of view ranging from traumatic experiences to imaginative encounters along what are often tortuous routes leading from Tehran eventually to Dortmund. The piece runs for 73 minutes and as it runs the gamut of styles from narrative cinema towards a more experiencial and immersive abstract video art experience, a daily schedule for start times will be posted on Vox’s website.

This loosely narrative film that combines cinematic genres, new media techniques, and our new digital vision with mobile devices will be screening multiple times daily. We recommend trying to see the work from start to finish (73 minutes in length) join us as the film begins at  12pm, 1:15pm, 2:30pm, 3:45pm, and 4pm daily during gallery hours.

View trailer here.