Ginan Seidl Wins Prize for Her New Installation J-N-N ج-ن-ن

J-N-N ج-ن-ن — About the Work

J-N-N ج-ن-ن is an essayistic 3-channel video installation that unfolds from intimate family conversations recorded during Seidl’s recent trip to Iraq, intertwined with extensive research into the cultural and spiritual presence of Jinn. These ephemeral entities, referenced both in the Qur’an and pre-Islamic texts, permeate Iraq’s everyday narratives—appearing in countless forms, said to offer protection or special powers, or to threaten the boundaries of sanity itself. Even political myths, such as reports of Saddam Hussein consulting seven Jinn, shape their complex cultural role.

Seidl transforms these layered histories into a visual and sonic journey through the deserts of Iraq—moving from Ur to Babylon, and finally into secluded living rooms in Baghdad. The piece looks fragmentarily at a society scarred by decades of war, repression, and terror, weaving together mythology, historical trauma, and personal memory.

While attempting to comprehend these lived experiences from an external perspective, J-N-N ج-ن-ن simultaneously circles around the unspeakable—the voids, the in-between spaces, the emotional aftermath that resists articulation. It is precisely in these gaps that the work finds its resonance: confronting the vehemence of what cannot be said.

Credits

J-N-N ج-ن-ن
3-channel video installation
19 min., 2025

• a work by Ginan Seidl
• sound design: Binha Haase
• animation: Aldo Cañedo
• edit consultant: Daniela Kinateder
• sound mix & additional music: Steffen Martin
• colour correction: David Schöley (InOneMedia)
• co-production: PARA Film GbR & Ginan Seidl