DOKU.ARTS Programme at SMART Project Space
Thursday 10/6 22.00 + Saturday 12/6 19.30
About Jenny Holzer
Dir. Claudia Müller
Germany/USA 2008, 52 min.
Language: English, Subtitles: (No)
‘Protect me from what I want’ might be artist Jenny Holzer’s most famous phrase. Part of a collection of statements and aphorisms called ‘Truisms’ begun in 1977, it is typical of artist Jenny Holzer’s (b. 1950) notoriously acerbic wit. Holzer’s pioneering approach to language and her use of nontraditional media in public settings (for example at Schiphol Airport) make her one of the most significant artists working today.
Directress Claudia Müller followed her over the course of ten years, collecting her own TV footage and other unusual material such as a 16mm film shot for Art Forum in the 80s by Ed Lachman. A beautiful and personal portrait emerges of a down-to-earth personality, who started out as a young street artist in New York in the late 1970s and became one of the most influential female artists of today.
prefilm: Art Forum footage about Jenny Holzer at the Guggenheim Museum, by Ed Lachman, 1989, 32 min.
The Art Forum short film about Jenny Holzer at the Guggenheim Museum by Ed Lachman, 1989, will be screened after the film (32 minutes).
Friday 11/6 19.30
Archipels Nitrate
Dir. Claudio Pazienza
Belgium 2009, 62 min.
Language: French, Subtitles: English
‘Silent planets. Planets on which life expectancy is measured in seconds… How long does an image last?’ Made for the 70th anniversary of the Cinémathèque Royale in Belgium (now named Cinematek), Claudio Pazienza’s Archipels Nitrate offers a unique and poetic tour through a film collection. An homage to its representative personalities and its pioneering curator, Jacques Ledoux, this personal selection of moments is a reflection upon the physical and psychological ephemerality of the moving image. ‘Sometimes intact, sometimes scratched, faded, almost erased. Images by the thousands that run wildly, uncontrollably, into my mind’. Pazienza’s superb cinematic essay compiles magnificent clips of many beautifully restored films, from the early Lumière pictures (1896) to a short film by Belgium filmmaker Olivier Smolders (1997). The film is a distillation of the history of film, mixing documentary footage with moments from the great directors of cinema, from Chaplin to Fassbinder. By combining scenes from disparate times, Pazienza poses questions such as ‘Why are these images so embedded, and why do they trigger others?’
With a splendid musical score that includes compositions by John Cage, Béla Bartok, Georg Friedrich Händel, Morton Feldman, and DAAU (Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung), Archipels Nitrate is a fascinating investigation into the memories of cinema itself. Winner of the Grand Prix, Montreal Film Festival on Art.
Saturday 12/6 22.00
Arena: Brian Eno - Another Green World
Dir. Nicola Roberts
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The Delian Mode
Dir. Kara Blake
Arena: Brian Eno - Another Green World
UK 2010, 60 min.
Language: English, Subtitles: (No)
‘We didn’t go to art school,” says U2’s Bono. “We went to Brian. He’s a mind-expanding drug.’ Brian Eno first starred as the feather-crested electronic keyboard genius of Roxy Music, forty odd years ago. Since then he has been hailed as a pioneer, for his revolutionary experiments in ambient music and audio visual art, and as a producer on benchmark albums by David Bowie, Talking Heads, U2 and Coldplay.In this beautiful and inspiring portrait, Nicolas Roberts observes Eno working in his studio and talking with friends and colleagues. It is immediately apparent that Eno is not only pop’s eminent egghead, but also a disarmingly warm and playful character who is constantly emphasizing the importance of chance in his achievements. The master of reinvention engages with fellow influential minds in a series of chats on science, art, systems analysis, music producing and cybernetics. Contributors include writer Paul Morley, scientist Richard Dawkins, cybernetician David Whittaker and producer Steve Lillywhite.
The Delian Mode
Canada 2009, 25 min.
Language: English, Subtitles: (No)
The Delian Mode is an award-winning experimental documentary (Best Short Documentary at Hot Docs, 2009) revolving around the life and work of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, best known for her groundbreaking sound treatment of the ‘Doctor Who’ theme music. A collage of sound and image created in the spirit of Derbyshire’s characteristic approach to audio creation and manipulation, this film illuminates her soundscapes onscreen while paying tribute to a woman whose work has influenced electronic musicians for decades.
Saturday 12/6 15.00
Calder: Sculptor of Air (Calder: sculpteur de l'air)
by François Lévy-Kuentz
France 2009, 52 min.
Language: French, Subtitles: English
Alexander Calder’s work was captured on film as early as 1929 in a documentary by German films on art pioneer Hans Cürlis. His film Drahtplastik as well as Carlos Vilardebó’s famous Calder’s Circus (1961), both part of the EYE collection, are integrated into this masterful compilation documentary.
The beauty and fragility of the work of Alexander Calder (1898-1976), who was during his lifetime one of the most revolutionary and popular artists, continues to fascinate with its unique constellations of forms, colours and movement. As a student, Calder did illustrations for the National Police Gazette, including sketches of famous circus troupes. In 1926, he moved to Paris, where he created his legendary miniature Circus. His friendship with Miró, Leger, Arp and Mondrian greatly influenced his art, as he stopped figurative pieces and developed a colourful, abstract sculptural idiom. In 1932, he exhibited his first ‘mobiles’, kinetic sculptures that derived their motion from air currents.
Including numerous unpublished interviews, archival film clips and footage of his sculptures, the film highlights the innovative nature of Calder's work and searches for major recurrent themes. François Levy Kuentz meticulously and brilliantly combines the many different films and material into a cinematic self-portrait of the artist, which has won many awards. This documentary was co-produced by the Centre Pompidou in Paris and AVRO in 2009 on the occasion of a retrospective of Calder’s Paris years, and was also shown at the Whitney Museum, New York.
Sunday 13/6 17.00
The Extraordinary Ordinary Life of José González
by Fredrik Egerstrand and Mikel Cee Karlsson
Sweden 2010, 70 min.
Language: Swedish, Subtitles: English
A very unusual and quirky portrait about Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter José González that focuses on the moments surrounding the creative process. The film achieves an unconventional intimacy using impressionistic personal sequences of the singer’s everyday life.
González, who’s parents came in the 70s from Argentina to Sweden, meets his father again on a trip back to Argentina. During the work for his long-awaited second album ‘In-our-nature’ (2007), we follow his personal reflections and glimpses of life and how they shape the slow artistic process of the musician. The lyrical texts of ‘In-our-nature’ were influenced by González’ readings of books by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and ethicist Peter Singer. Made up of many long and sometimes strange shots using diverse material with very different styles such as video diaries, surveillance camera, concert footage, tour documentation and animation, we follow the musician’s daily routine on several concert tours ranging over a three year period to Japan, Singapore, United States, South Africa, England, Chile and Argentina.
What emerges is a fascinating mixture between a melancholic travel dairy, with impressive live recordings of his concerts, and scientific reflections during his daily routines. The film gives us an insight into the, often lonely, creative process and of one person’s attempt to manage and understand his own existence.
Thursday 10/6 19.30 + Friday 11/6 22.00
Friendly Enemies
Dir. Danila Cahen
The Netherlands 2010, 54 min.
Language: Dutch, Subtitles: English
This film takes us behind the scenes amidst the hectic preparations for the 9th Istanbul Biennale in 2005, following renowned curators Charles Esche (director Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven), and Vasif Kortun (director art centre Platform Garanti, Istanbul), as they work closely with the numerous artists they have invited. Shooting independently on a modest budget, first time filmmaker Danila Cahen captures many candid moments in the exhibition process, while placing the exchange between artist and curator against a broad, historical narrative. The curator’s role has changed dramatically since the 60s: in fact, expanded curating styles are a highly contested subject today. Using archive material of exhibitions, and numerous interviews with art professionals around the world, the recent history of curating unfolds through important moments, figures and exhibitions. In the film, there is a constant and yet unspoken tension: who really decides to show what, and in which context? In Istanbul, the curators navigate numerous tensions: between the artist, the selection and production of the works, the venues, and not least, the chaotic city. When a 20-meter high sculpture collapses, only days before the opening, we get a rare insight into this unique relationship. With contributions by: Saskia Bos, Ann Demeester, Alex Farquharson, Gerardo Mosquera, Harald Szeemann and artists Hüseyin Alptekin, Yael Bartana, Pavel Büchler, Daniel Buren, Ger van Elk, Serkan Özkaya, Dan Perjovschi, and many others.
Saturday 12/6 17.00
IN PROGRESS - Video lecture Living Architectures
by Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine
France 2010, 90 min.
Language: French/Italian/Spanish, Subtitles: English
After the success of last year’s presentation of Koolhaas Houselife, Doku.Arts presents an IN PROGRESS video lecture about four new films by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine.
The Living Architectures series questions the typical idealized representations of architecture. The cult of perfect, disembodied forms entirely devoid of people, inevitably leads to a rift between architecture and living space. Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine’s amusing productions avoid preconceived ideas of perfection, virtuosity and infallibility, in order to demonstrate the vitality, fragility and vulnerable beauty of architecture as recounted and witnessed by people who actually live in, use or maintain it. Their quirky films characteristically present a series of moments and fragments of life, in which unusual and spontaneous portraits of buildings emerge.
Pomerol, Herzog & de Meuron offers an unusual visit to the architect’s dining hall in Pomerol, France, designed for the prestigious Jean-Pierre Moueix vineyards. Xmas Meier describes how the Jubillee church designed by Richard Meier in 2003 has transformed the life of the Tor Tre Teste neighbourhood in Rome, lifting it from anonymity to international renown. In Gehry’s Vertigo, we follow the climbing team in charge of glass cleaning at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Inside Renzo Piano comprises three films that follow the users and daily routines of the employees at B&B Italia (Italy), Foundation Beyeler (Switzerland), and IRCAM (France).
Sunday 13/6. 15.00
Mokarrameh, Memories and Dreams (Mokarrameh, khaterat va rohaya)
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Rendezvous with Mokarrameh (Meeadgahe Mokarrameh )
by Ebrahim Mokhtari
Mokarrameh, Memories and Dreams
Iran 1999, 48 min.
Language: Farsi, Subtitles: English
Described as the ‘The female Chagall of Iran’, self-taught artist Mokarrameh Ghanbari (1928-2005) began painting at the age of 63. The renowned director Ebrahim Mokhtari contributed to her popularity in Iran through this wonderful film made in 1999. The director summarizes her story as follows: ‘A woman owned a cow. She was extremely fond of feeding it, fetching grass from a long way off. One day her children secretly decided to sell the animal. To overcome her grief she started to paint pictures on anything she could: the walls of the house, pumpkins, the fridge door… On his monthly visits from Tehran, her son brought her paper & paint and the old woman painted away tirelessly.’ In Mokhtari’s film we meet her in her house, which overflows with her paintings. A sensitive, moving and astonishing portrait of a prolific artist and the world around her: simultaneously portraying the hardships of women in rural Iran.
Rendezvous with Mokarrameh
Iran 2010, 30 min.
Language: Farsi, Subtitles: English
In addition to the film from 1999, we present Rendezvous with Mokarrameh, a new film by Ebrahim Mokhtari, which was edited specifically for Doku.Arts and which pictures the ‘afterlife’ of the painter. After her death at the age of 77, Mokarrameh was buried in the courtyard of her house, which has now become a museum. On her birthday, people, women, men and children come to her house and spontaneously unleash their interest in painting by painting on paper, wood and stones. Mokhtari filmed several of these occasions.
Sunday 13/6 19.30
Tom Zé – Liberated Astronaut (Tom Zé Astronauta Liberado)
Dir. Ígor Iglesias González
Spain 2009, 90 min.
Language: Portugese, Subtitles: English
‘I don't make art, I make spoken and sung journalism’ is the self-definition of the extraordinary Brazilian songwriter and composer Tom Zé, who was born in 1936 in a poor neighborhood in Bahia. His aesthetic of juxtaposition and disjuncture was a musical response to issues of mass culture, consumption, and citizenship in 1960s São Paulo. Nowadays he is often compared with American musicians Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.
While the other major figures of the Tropicália movement, such as Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, went on to great commercial and critical success in later decades, Zé moved out of the public eye by the 1980s. It was only in the 1990s, when the musician and Luaka Bop label head David Byrne enthusiastically discovered an early Zé record and offered to record his music, that he returned to performing and releasing new material. Remaining true to the experimental and Dada impulses of Tropicália, Zé has been noted for his unorthodox approach to both melody and instrumentation. While his work appropriates styles such as samba, bossa nova, Brazilian folk music, forró, and even American rock and roll, he has also been praised by avant-garde composers for his use of dissonance, polytonality, and unusual time signatures.
First time filmmaker Ígor Iglesias González employs a clever montage of scenes from workshop sessions to concerts, creating a splendid homage to a man, who at the age of 73, is as boisterous and energized as a kid.