sjón f (genitive singular sjónar, nominative plural sjónir)
- a vision, sight, eyesight
- a glimpse, sight, seeing
- a spectacle, scene, sight
Sjón is a biennial festival for anthropological audiovisual works. It takes the shape of an anthropological playground consisting of two parts:
- the screening of works related to the theme, made by filmmakers with a formal background in Anthropology, Ethnology, Folklore, Social Sciences etc (of any length and at any level), and
- the accompanying workshops providing an interactive, participatory space for experimentation with form and concepts.
Every two years, the festival runs under a different theme. We choose concepts that are accessible to wider audiences, as the main mission of the festival is to disseminate anthropological knowledge and methodologies to the open public. We operate on a non-profit basis and our events are always free to attend and open to the public. We strive to provide a welcoming, safe, and nurturing space for any practitioners in the field, as well as a playground for non-anthropologists to engage critically with different ideas.
Interested in hearing more about our previous editions?
Outside our annual events, Sjón is also an international collective of visual anthropologists with various backgrounds, interested in multi-sensorial experimentation. We believe that engaging with and exploring our senses can help us better understand ourselves as well as those around us. We use film, interactive installations, and workshops to challenge our sensual assumptions and to develop sensorial ways of being in the world.