Closed World: Exercise in Resilience
Part 3 of a 4 Part Film & Video Series Presented by the 2024 Texas Biennial in Partnership with Future Front
Join us in The Jones Center’s Community Room on Wednesday, November 20 from 6:30–8pm for Closed World: Exercise in Resilience, the third in a four-part film series presented in partnership with Future Front and the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston as part of the 2024 Texas Biennial.
Closed World, co-curated by Innocent Ekejiuba and Erika Mei Chua Holum, is a four-part film program including works by an international roster of contemporary artists designed as four exercises in healing. The film series is presented in conjunction with Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions - an exhibition at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston that is co-organized with KADIST - San Francisco and offered as part of the 2024 Texas Biennial: The Last Sky.
For these satellite screenings of the Closed World programs at The Contemporary Austin, the program’s curators have partnered with Future Front's Founding Director Jane Hervey, who additionally curated works by Texas-based artists appearing in The Front Festival's annual Independent Film Showcase.
Films included in part-three, Closed World: Exercise in Resilience, include A Dreamer’s Discourse (2023) by Austin-based artist Victoria Cantu and Sidesteps (Purslane) (2024) by Houston-based artist Julia Barbosa Landois alongside the following works:
The final Closed World screenings at The Contemporary Austin - Jones Center offered as part of this series is:
Exercise of Rebuilding and Recovery on Sunday, November 24 from 2–3:30P
All programs are free to attend and include admission to view our current exhibitions Carl Cheng: Nature Never Loses and HOST: Katarina Janečková Walshe.
For accommodations, please email [email protected] in advance.
Curatorial Statement: Closed World
Closed World consists of four short-film programs, or exercises, encompassing the themes of grief, memory / remembrance, resilience, and rebuilding / recovery. Each program is designed as a ‘Closed World’ - or as a generative system formed through synthetic naturalism, where the habitable conditions of nature are replicated within spaces of the home, theater, or gallery space.
Closed World seeks to examine the earth as a whole - as a complete and interconnected system - which can be shaped into architecture as part of an integrated system derived from nature in the built environment. A closed world is built and unbuilt through the progression of the four-part exercises in this film program and the community taking part; it is not enough to talk about healing or grief, we must all go through the complete healing process as a community and ensure rebirth happens on a communal scale.
About the Organizers
Erika Mei Chua Holum is the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Associate Curator at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston and is one of three curators of the 2024 Texas Biennial. Recent projects at the Blaffer Art Museum include Makeshift Memorials, Small Revolutions with KADIST San Francisco (2024), and solo exhibitions with Cian Dayrit (2024), Saif Azzuz (2025), and Ja’Tovia Gary (2026).
Innocent Ekejiuba is a PhD student at Howard University and a Cultural Researcher. He serves as an assistant professor of Art and Cultural Management in the Creative Enterprise Leadership International Graduate Program at Pratt Institute. In 2020, he founded The Drill, a non-profit organization dedicated to building a sustainable African art ecosystem by providing early and mid-career African artists with tools for sustainable practices.
Homegrown in Austin, Future Front is an award-winning cultural space and exhibition series—with women and LGBTQ+ creatives at the front. As a 501c3 arts and culture nonprofit, we produce community-led exhibitions, markets and festivals, amplifying independent artists and creatives across disciplines in Central Texas. Welcoming 20,000+ visitors per year, our programs and partnerships invite the public to dream of a future where creativity, curiosity and intersectional design thrive in Texas, where we see ourselves and our cultures reflected in our communities.
The Texas-based filmmakers featured in Closed World have been curated by Future Front's Founding Director Jane Hervey from The Front Festival's Independent Film Showcase, which is annually hosted at The Contemporary Austin — Laguna Gloria. To learn more about The Front Festival and Future Front, head to futurefronttexas.org.
About Victoria
Victoria Cantu (b. 1998, Texas) aka onlinebedroom is an identity-based artist, blurring the lines between performance and documentation through video, audio, installation, set design, and more. Born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, their Mexican and Queer identity plays a crucial role in their work. Forever inspired by love, theater, performance, and pop culture, Victoria continuously discovers new ways to explore self-portraits. Their recent accomplishments include receiving the Nexus grant from the City of Austin and an artist residency at The Museum of Human Achievement.
About Julia Barbosa Landois
Julia Barbosa Landois (b. San Antonio, USA) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Houston, TX. Her videos, installations, performances, and works on paper have been exhibited in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. Her awards include grants from National Performance Network (NPN), National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures (NALAC), and Houston Arts Alliance, plus residencies at Lawndale Art Center, Santa Fe Art Institute, Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder (Norway), and Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Germany). Her works on paper are in the permanent collections of the City of Houston and Houston Endowment as well as many private collections. In addition to being a studio artist, Barbosa Landois has worked as a professor, exhibitions coordinator, grant writer, and community educator. She is a parent to two amazing humans and an eager student of the land. Click here for curriculum vitae.