2+0+1+2+1+2+2+1 | Elisabeth Smolarz | 2012 | 02:21 min. |
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2+1+1+2+2+0+1+2 is a video in collaboration with the psychic Roxanne, whom I asked to predict humanity’s future in Feb. 2012. In the course of political change in the former Communist Poland of 1989 Elisabeth Smolarz’s family immigrated to Germany. Age thirteen at that time, she grew up between two different cultures and was affected by a post-communist and a democratic system. As a consequence she got more and more involved in the idea of how consciousness and perception is formed by one’s surrounding and its specific cultural, political, social and economical conditions. Since then her work has been shown nationally and internationally - in venues such as Kunsthalle Galapagos New York, Baden Württembergischer Kunstverein, Photography Triennial Esslingen, Carnegie Mellon, Independent Museum of Contemporary Art (IMCA) Cyprus, Brooklyn Arts Council, Reykjavik Photography Museum, Espai d'art contemporani de Castelló, the Sculpture Center and the 3rd Moscow Biennale among others. Awards and residencies include the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen Travel Grant, Karin Abt-Straubinger Stiftung Grant, Sarai Artist Residency, New Delhi, India, Capacete Artist Residency, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Red Gate Gallery Artist Residency, Beijing, China and more. |
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| Belief | Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead | 2012 | 13:15 min. | ||
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Belief is made from information found entirely on the worldwide web. In fifteen minutes, this two-screen installation presents a series of fragmented broadcasts about belief, all sourced from the video sharing community YouTube.
Jon Thomson (b. 1969) and Alison Craighead (b. 1971) are artists living and working in London. They make artworks and installations for galleries, online and sometimes outdoors. Much of their recent work looks at live networks like the web and how they are changing the way we all understand the world around us. Having both studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, Jon now lectures part time at The Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, while Alison is a senior researcher at University of Westminster and lectures in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University. URL: http://www.thomson-craighead.net |
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| The Anunciation | Eija-Liisa Ahtila | 2011 | 36:00 min. | ||
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The Annunciation is a film in which one of the central motifs of Christian iconography is constructed and re-enacted through moving image. It is based on the narrative in the Gospel of Luke (1:26-38) and on paintings of the Annunciation in which artists have, in various periods, depicted their visions of the gospel’s events. The underlying viewpoint in the Annunciation is Jacob von Uexküll’s idea that the different worlds of living beings all exist simultaneously. The idea is used as the approach for an exploration of the nature of miracles and the possibilities of perception and knowledge. In the work, the actors reconstruct the sacred, and in the process redefine the human through the divine and the animal. Eija-Liisa Ahtila has explored and experimented with narrative storytelling in her films and cinematic installations. In her earlier works she has dealt with the unsettling human dramas at the centre of personal relationships, dealing e.g. with teenage sexuality, family relations, mental disintegration and death. Her later works, however, deal with more profound and basic artistic questions where she investigates the processes of perception and attribution of meaning, at times in the light of a larger cultural and existential thematic like colonialism and faith. Her skilfully crafted narratives and touching portrayal of characters have captured the public's interest and won critical acclaim worldwide. The films attain an air of contemporary familiarity combined with intense oddness, giving Ahtila’s work its distinctive style. Eija-Liisa Ahtila’s films have won several international film awards. A retrospective of her films have been shown at major festivals throughout the world. A retrospective of her time-based installation works has been shown in some of the most prominent contemporary art museums worldwide. British Film Institute has published The Cinematic Works of Eija-Liisa Ahtila, exposing her work to a wider audience on home DVD. |
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| Afterlife | Bjørn Melhus | 2010 | 07:10 min. | ||
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Vast desert expanses extend out in our imaginations as life after death, the white blinding light transforming the mere mortal into the eternal. The curtains go down but the brilliance of the spirit lives on, truly free amongst the sweeping winds and blowing dust. Judy Garland, Jim Morrison, Big Jim and even you—the essence of life may be meaningless but there is unspeakable beauty in its demise. Bjørn Melhus, born 1966, is a German-Norwegian media artist. In his work he has developed a singular position, expanding the possibilities for a critical reception of cinema and television. His practice of fragmentation, destruction, and reconstitution of well-known figures, topics, and strategies of the mass media opens up not only a network of new interpretations and critical commentaries, but also defines the relationship of mass media and viewer anew. Originally rooted in an experimental film context, Bjørn Melhus`s work has been shown and awarded at numerous international film festivals. He has held screenings at Tate Modern and the LUX in London, the Museum of Modern Art (MediaScope) in New York, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, amongst others. His work has been exhibited in shows like The American Effect at the Whitney Museum New York, the 8th International Istanbul Biennial, solo and group shows at FACT Liverpool, Serpentine Gallery London, Sprengel Museum Hanover, Museum Ludwig Cologne, ZKM Karlsruhe, Denver Art Museum among others. |
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| Casting Jesus | Christian Jankowski | 2011 | 60:00 min. | ||
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Casting Jesus shows an audition to select an actor that best interprets the Son of God. Prior to the audition, a group of 13 professional actors was selected by a Roman casting agency. Using a casting show format, similar to X-Factor or American Idol, the actors compete for the role of Jesus. A distinguished panel of real Vatican members judges the actors as they complete a variety of tasks including breaking bread, performing a miracle, or carrying the cross, as well as dramatic interpretations of their favourite Jesus quotes. Filmed by Jankowski in the Complesso Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome – in medieval times a hospital for pilgrims -, the actors are gradually narrowed down to one finalist by the jury. As the casting is finished, Monsignore José Manuel del Rio Carrasco takes a picture of the new Jesus and prayer cards are produced. The psalm which can be read on the cards is also chosen by the priest.architecture, and literature are dialectically intertwined with the human psyche. Christian Jankowski *1968 in Göttingen, GER, lives and works in Berlin GER studied at Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg, GER Exhibitions [Selection]: 2012 Casting Jesus, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Utah, USA Die große Geste, Art and the City: Public Art Festival, Zuürich, SUI 2011 Jesus está aquí, Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City, MEX All about my work and Me“, Kunstwerke Berlin, GER 2010 The Perfect Gallery, Cube Gallery Manchester, GBR |
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