From the Gallery to the Screen

Amalia Ulman, the artist who achieved international notoriety in 2014 with her provocative Instagram performance “Excellences and Perfections,” has transcended the boundaries of social media to stake a serious claim in cinema. Her second feature, “Magic Farm,” opens May 16, following the acclaimed dark comedy “El Planeta” (2021) — in which Ulman portrays the fractured relationship between a mother and daughter driven to defraud strangers in Spain simply to survive.

“Magic Farm,” featuring a standout performance by Chloë Sevigny, follows a group of American journalists who travel to Argentina to film a segment on a local musician, only to encounter an unforgettable cast of characters defined by their struggle against pesticide contamination. The film operates as a sharp satire of American hipster consumerism and its most self-congratulatory contradictions.

Taken together, Ulman’s body of work — “Excellences and Perfections,” “El Planeta,” and “Magic Farm” — appears on the surface to orbit the familiar territory of beauty culture and social media validation. Beneath that veneer, however, lies a sustained and quietly devastating critique of social and political absurdity, delivered with characteristic wit.

In a recent interview, Ulman reflected on her transition from the art world to filmmaking, underscoring her determination to retain creative control at every stage of the process — from cinematography to costume. The demands of simultaneously acting, directing, and producing have since led her to step back from performance, concentrating instead on screenwriting as her primary instrument for translating the world around her onto film.

Her years in the art world — marked by financial exploitation and systemic abuse — stand in sharp contrast to the mentorship and collaborative spirit she has found in cinema. Figures such as Eugene Kotlyarenko, Miranda July, and Scott Macaulay have been instrumental in shaping her new creative life.

“Magic Farm” also makes a point of visibility, casting performers with visible disabilities — a decision rooted in Ulman’s own family history and the realities of life in her hometown in Argentina. Through her newly founded production company, Holga’s Meow, she aims to support smaller-scale projects and provide a platform for women and emerging artists crossing over from the art world.

Ulman is, unmistakably, in the midst of a significant creative evolution. She has already revealed her next project: a feature film based on her short story “La profesora alemana,” set in Spain and centered on a private debt collection agency — a premise that promises to be every bit as pointed as the work that preceded it.