Desire Lines

Desire Lines (or elephant tracks) are the informal paths that emerge when people ignore existing routes to forge their own way. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology (2006), this playful short film programme explores how landscape architecture can be a manifestation of power inequalities and how ‘queering’ public space can lead to freedom.

Morgenkreis (2025, Basma al-Sharif) and Parish (2025, Eóin Heaney) guide us through the rituals of mourning in a changing environment. Through Verdigris (2025, Chloe Brenan) and Limits and Demonstrations (2025, Olivia Normile), we learn to recognise the infrastructural violence inherent in, amongst other things, Parisian urban planning, whilst Collectif Faire-Part’s Speech for a Melting Statue (2023) intervenes in the colonial remnants within Brussels. In doing so, the city becomes a political arena that can be shaped by its residents.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers Chloe Brenan, Olivia Normile and Collectif Faire-Part.

In collaboration with arts organisation aemi.