The online archive This Long Century has published hundreds of personal reflections from artists, filmmakers, and writers since 2008. To celebrate their 500th post, and their 17 years in operation, we’re proud to team up with founder Jason Evans to present contributor Gelare Khoshgozaran’s short film The Retreat.

Khoshgozaran’s film expands upon questions about the experience of exile that they have been investigating throughout their career as an artist. Building upon their essay “The Too Many and No Homes of Exile,” the film pieces together anecdotes, conversations, and reflections shared among a group of strangers who have experienced displacement and were invited by Khoshgozaran to an “exile retreat” in Southern France.

“The Retreat was produced through a discursive and community-oriented process, central to which was an ‘exile retreat’ organized by the filmmaker. The international group of participants and collaborators convened for the week-long retreat in Monistrol-d’Allier — in proximity to the psychiatric hospital (asylum) in Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole, Lozère and the radical legacies of Catalan psychiatrist Francesc Tosquelles — to consider exile as a space for transnational solidarity.” GELARE KHOSHGOZARAN

 

Among the many references embedded in Khoshgozaran’s film are excerpts from Adolfo Bioy Casares’ novel The Invention of Morel and references to the history of Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole, where the radical psychotherapist Francesc Tosquelles worked for over 20 years and supervised Frantz Fanon, who was then fleeing political persecution. The meaning of “asylum” and “exile” are parsed over throughout The Retreat, discussed among the film’s retreat group, who define each word according to their own associated memories and experiences. What emerges in Khoshgozaran’s film is a portrait of a community working across languages, backgrounds, and situations to establish a sense of kinship.

Gelare Khoshgozaran is an undisciplinary artist and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Their work addresses the legacies of imperial violence, as seen in war, militarization, and borders. Khoshgozaran’s work has been exhibited at the New Museum, Hammer Museum, and Cell Project Space among several other renowned institutions. They have also been the recipient of a Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award, and Graham Foundation Award. Currently, Khoshgozaran is an assistant professor of art at UCLA School of Art and Architecture.

Text written by Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer. Special thanks to Jason Evans and Gelare Khoshgozaran.