ROLAND DAHWEN // The House of Asterion

On view in the Project Room February 21–March 29, 2026
Reading & reception Thursday, March 19 (7pm)

«I pretend that he comes to visit me and I show him my house.»

Nationale is pleased to present The House of Asterion (2025), a five-minute color film by Portland-based filmmaker and writer Roland Dahwen. Drawing from La casa de Asterión by Jorge Luis Borges, Dahwen reimagines the half- man, half-bull Minotaur—Asterion—as both host and captive, wandering the corridors of his endless home, awaiting a Redeemer who may never come. Guided by Asterion’s voice, the film unfolds as a solitary tour through myth and longing.

Shot by Halle Frost with a score by Shao Way Wu and Randy Porter, this intimate meditation transforms Greek mythology into a portrait of solitude, architecture, and the strange hospitality of waiting.

Roland Dahwen is a filmmaker and writer. He studied literature and translation before starting to work in documentary and narrative film. At the age of twenty, he made his first short film, There are no birds in the nests of yesterday, about the whistling language of the Canary Islands, which convinced him that he wanted to pursue filmmaking. He then worked at a documentary film company, helping to make and distribute films about immigration and citizenship. He worked on short films and video installations for several years, before directing his first narrative feature film, Borrufa. His production studio is Patuá Films, and he is a Co-Director of Outer Voice, an artist collective in Portland, OR.