Nature Morte: Extinction in Contemporary Moving Image

Each screening will focus on one or a pair of moving image works. Invited discussants will give a short response before posing questions for relaxed collective conversation about the film.

Extinction is the greatest existential threat of our time yet the extractive practices that precipitate it continue apace. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more than 49,500 species are currently threatened with extinction. Compounding the harm of biodiversity loss, extinction also presents a crisis of representations as artists and filmmakers grapple with ‘the inability of art to capture an apocalypse to come’ (Andrew Patrizio, 2022).

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Michela de Mattei, True Believers See More Patterns (2024-ongoing), 19 Minutes. Music: Cevdet Erek, Zincirli (Subtext Recordings, 2021). Courtesy of the artist and Belmacz.

Part of a new series of works extending the artist’s ongoing research into forms of animal resistance, True Believers See More Patterns (2024) is a growing video archive of thylacine sightings, compiling all currently available footage sourced from online communities who believe the marsupial is still extant. The thylacine (also known as the Tasmanian tiger) was declared extinct in 1936, and its demise can be directly attributed to excessive hunting and habitat destruction caused by the establishment of the first British colonies in Tasmania in the early 1800s. Yet the animal seems to resist extinction by haunting the collective imagination. Entire online and offline communities have formed around blurry, slowed-down, and stabilized footage of alleged thylacines. Sightings continue, and large numbers are still reported today. The music by Turkish artist Cevdet Erek (Zincirli, 2021, Subtext Recordings, Berlin), performed in a single take on the davul, flows as an integral stream within the work, resonating with its open-ended nature. Sound and image may evolve together over time, as new evidence of sightings emerges. 

Artist bio

Michela de Mattei (Rome, 1984) is an artist currently based in Milan. She works across different formats and media, often developing fictional scenarios and unusual ecosystems in which animal–human affairs are hijacked by technologies. Her works question standards of authority and control, addressing issues of animal agency and the changing dynamics of communication systems. In 2025 she presented Paraflu (co-directed with Invernomuto) at GAMeC, Bergamo; Fondazione Prada, Milan; Villa Medici, Rome; St. Moritz Film Festival; EMST, Athens, and took part in Premio Michetti and Nextones festival. Other recent exhibitions include: Belmacz, London (2024); MACRO, Rome (2024); Porto Design Biennale, Porto (2023); MAXXI L’Aquila (2022); MAAT, Lisbon (2021); Alserkal Avenue, Dubai (2019); Belmacz, London (2019); ICI, London (2018); Serpentine Galleries / ZSL London Zoo (2018); Swiss Institute, Rome (2017). In 2023 de Mattei published Brief Inventory of Animal Resistance, VOL.1 (Aniene, Rome).

Discussant

Vivian Myron is a second year PhD student in the History Department at Durham University. Her research centres on the Photographic Archive of the Durham Light Infantry and the role of photography in British military life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Before starting her PhD she worked at the National Collection of Aerial Photography, part of Historic Environment Scotland, and completed her Mlitt in the History of Photography at the University of St Andrews. In her free time she enjoys knitting and long walks.