MAMA presents: House vs Home

House vs Home is a playground for the search of belonging, organized by MaMA, homebase for the youngest generation of artists and art lovers in Rotterdam. We go from a house that once was a home – to the story of a mother, leaving her home to build a home elsewhere – to the story of a daughter longing for her mother, her home. Having a home is crucial to our personal development; but to experience the restful feeling of actually having one is a privilege not given to all. House vs Home explores the concept of home as both a physical space and an emotional experience.

Together with Shukrije and Shefki (Dugaja) we explore an ongoing struggle of finding home after the Kosovo war left the ground their house was built on drenched in blood. Then we join ‘white ghost’ (el jardín de los espíritus) moving through the landscape that is home to their mother. While dancing with a net we learn about their painfully moving Colombian family history. After, we are taken by Charlotte (Making my mother’s bed), who tells a story of endless longing and grief; the impact of the space a mother leaves after she passes.

Dugaja (a store)
by Falkona Rexhepi
2020, The Netherlands, 22 minutes, Albanian with English subtitles

Dugaja is a poetic documentary on the sad transition of a house that was built to be a home, back to a house, back to a home – and forever fluctuating between these two states as a result of the Kosovo war in 1999. The camera was left on by Shefki, the store owner. While it’s pointed at the window, it’s documenting the precious images of a very particular space and time; post war Kosovo. While life continues in all its normality, the subtitles tell the tragic story of Shefki and his wife Shukrije; their house and home was seized by Serbian paramilitary troops during the war. They have tried endlessly to wash off the blood that was smeared on the house – but with little success.

el jardín de los espíritus (the garden of the spirits)
by Lili Ullrich (DE)
2020, Colombia/Germany, 10 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles
Lili Ullrich dances as ‘white ghost’ – through the landscape of their mother’s home in Colombia. In conversation with their mother and other family members they explore the story of their mother’s heritage and their own. We move through the exploration of white privilege and the effects of colonialism in Colombia and its cultural impact on social constructs.

Making my mother’s bed
by Charlotte van de Graaff
2024, Netherlands/Indonesia, 20 minutes, English, Dutch, and Bahasa with English subtitles

Charlotte van de Graaff explores the estrangement and longing for the motherland prevalent in the Indo community. But even more so the experience of these notions within one’s intimate relationships; whether that be to one’s self or familial ones. Through poetry, play and video she creates new landscapes, questioning the form of narration;where does new land begin and end and where do those ends connect? An exploration of the familiarity and estrangement one can have with the mother as a woman, as female. To what landscape does she, or doesn’t she belong?

Cineville valid at the door