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A NOTE ON THE RUINS FOR VISITORS BY DICKY BAHTO

What does it take to remake a cultural memory that has been unmade? A note on the ruins for visitors is a deeply personal portrait of the Assyrian community from fragments of material drawn from Bahto’s family history, ancient artifacts, and collaborations with contemporary artists working across the diaspora. “When Daesh invaded Iraq and released videos of themselves destroying ancient Assyrian artworks in the Mosul Museum,” Bahto explains, “I found myself thinking more deeply about my relationship to history as the grandchild of survivors of Seyfo – the Assyrian genocide. In fact, I realized that the genocide hadn’t ended, and I needed to think about my relationship not only to the past of our community, but also to the present and to a future in which I decided I no longer wanted to take a passive role.” The film investigates the materiality of cultural memory alongside its personal and spiritual dimensions, embodying the rebuilding of a community and connection to culture that honors the past while insisting on an open future.

The film features visual artwork, music, and writing by, as well as portraits of, Assyrian artists including Esther Elia, Maryam Yousif, Lolita Emmanuel, Tenise Marie, Monette Eiliazadeh, Deena Ana, Andrew Najor, Anna Kingsley, Rami Kingsley, Enanna Sheena, and more.

“His varied and complex engagement with moving image and photographic media is steeped in a deeply felt humanity and empathy, manifesting through his inspired photographic eye and frequently direct interaction with and appreciation of the material vitality of film and cinema. His films achieve heightened emotional states of great intimacy and poetry, often channeling the uniquely aleatory qualities of film to carry a sensuality and spirituality hovering in the space between loving depiction and vaporous abstraction.” (Mark Toscano)

Dicky Bahto has exhibited work utilizing still and motion picture photography, sound, and performance at a variety of museums, galleries, microcinemas, film festivals, conferences, alternative spaces, and scenic locations spanning the Northern Hemisphere, from the Museum of Modern Art in New York to a series of nooks, crannies, and underbrush along and under Sunset Boulevard. He has works in the permanent collections of The Getty Museum and the Huntington Library, Museum, and Gardens. He frequently collaborates with musicians, both as a performer and as a visual artist, including Sarah Davachi, Liz Harris, Julia Holter, and Tashi Wada, as well as with his lover, Patrick Londen, and their cats Simone and Katoosh.

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