PAST EVENT: This was part of the 2024 programme
Sanctus! was a film installation by Renèe Helèna Browne, newly commissioned for EAF24, exploring devotion in relation to portraiture, faith, and belonging. The project borrows its title from the Latin word for ‘holy’, chanted three times by the Prophet Isaiah upon seeing an apparition of God.
Through the roles of onlooker and interviewer, Browne presented a fragmented portrait of rally car culture as a route to finding understanding with their mother Helen. Shot across Ireland over the course of one year, the film work moves through various events, from opening ceremony celebrations, drivers’ preparations, bystanders’ excitements, to race day action, and adjacent diffing competitions.
Weaving through these scenes are encounters between mother and child, as they examine Helen’s relationship with faith, death, and the afterlife. The film was presented alongside a series of illustrations themed around faith and architecture.
Sanctus! was a co-commission between EAF and the University of Edinburgh Art Collection. At the end of the Festival presentation the work was acquired by the Art Collection, and will go on to be used in the support of research and teaching across the University.






Install photography by Sally Jubb. Film stills courtesy of the artist.
This work is generously supported by the Scottish Government’s Festivals EXPO Fund. Additional production supported by Creative Scotland.