“I am the place in which something has occurred.”
– Claude Lévi-Strauss

Beside Ourselves comprises objects and a collaborative zine that examines the ever-shifting terrain of finding one’s place in a transient world. It considers how stories inhabit and are expressed through objects, land and relationships and are ultimately carried by the bodies of individuals navigating, crossing and inhabiting personal and political borders, while endeavouring to maintain a sense of personal and cultural identity and connection to place and people.

The exhibition looks at the entwined histories of the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the conditions that tie them to each other as well as connect them to, or separate them from, their neighbouring countries. It encompasses a collection of ephemera drawn from the local community which document nationalities and personal stories of border crossings and includes state-produced objects that bear witness to the impermanence of political regimes that enact permanent change on national and individual fates.

Central to this year’s exhibition is a collaborative zine with contributions from artists, students, children and adults which further explore these themes and question what it is to be a neighbour living in the proximity of other people, buildings, cities, lands and regimes. CaSFFA invites you to make your own contribution of stories and images with these considerations in mind by dropping into the Australian Mediatheque during the festival. Pages and stories from the zine will be added to the CaSFFA blog and the zine collated into an archival book at the close of the festival.