Keeping it real art critics
kirac
KIRAC, which stand for ‘Keeping it real art critics,’ makes art critical movies about the art world through portraits of prominent figures and institutes in the Netherlands and abroad. The platform emerged from the collaborations between Tarik Sadouma and his friend and colleague from the art academy, Stefan Ruitenbeek. Later, under its current name (its original name was ‘Self-soap’), Kate Sinha was added to the team.
For seven years Sadouma researched the art world through this platform. He was both performer and creator of the series, setting up social experiments, initiating people from his personal life, and analyzing art and situations.
Throughout the series, Sadouma conveyed intricacies and insider knowledge about the art world to an art-interested public. Especially in recent years the platform was able to attract the attention of a wider audience.
Despite the increasing popularity, Sadouma decided in 2021 to leave the platform as he concluded that his former companions failed to adhere to the artistic integrities they once promoted.
highlighted episodes
Parts of movies available on Youtube, subscribe to KIRAC patreon for full films.
KIRAC EPISODE 24 under a sinking sun
Description on KIRAC website:
The film follows the KIRAC collective as we turn male and female arts and humanities students, who were expelled for sexual misconduct, into catalysts for a more decadent and artistic world. This film, originally commissioned by KIOSK / KASK, an esteemed art school in Ghent, Belgium, was abruptly cancelled just one day before its premiere. However, it’s available for online viewing.
Runtime 75 minutes. Release date 2022 April 2
KIRAC EPISODE 5 the tears of mara mccarthy
Description on KIRAC website:
A gallerist cries under artistic pressure.
Starring: Tarik Sadouma, Mara McCarthy, Wally Hedrick, Simone Forti, David Hoyland, Stefan Simchowitz.
12 minutes, October 15, 2016.
KIRAC EPISODE 23 Honeypot
Description on KIRAC website:
In this film, conservative philosopher Sid Lukkassen tries to save the world by having sex with leftist student Jini. Entering her boudoir, he is caught in an enchanting and unpredictable world.
The writer Michel Houellebecq mentions the film in his book A Few Months of My Life:
“The film is a painful experience of slightly more than fifty minutes that I would not recommend to anyone. The aesthetic ugliness is, in some way, transfigured by the moral ugliness, leaving you shocked, albeit with the firm conviction that all those people ought to disappear, should never have existed, and that the society enabling their appearance deserves nothing but destruction and ruin.”
Full runtime: 51 minutes. Published 2021, October 26.