calendario eventi  :: 

X

7/2/2007

Lights, Camera, Action

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Artists' Films for the Cinema

Films by Marina Abramovic, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Chantal Akerman, Matthew Barney, Samuel Beckett, Marco Brambilla, Larry Clark, Bruce Conner, Joseph Cornell, Tacita Dean, Dexter Dalwood, Tracy Emin, Robert Frank, Jean-Luc Godard, Douglas Gordon, Johan Grimonprez, Rebecca Horn, Derek Jarman, Isaac Julien, John Lennon, Alfred Leslie, Sharon Lockhart, Robert Longo, Babette Mangolte, Chris Marker, Anthony McCall, Shirin Neshat, Gaspar Noé, Yoko Ono, Richard Prince, Yvonne Rainer, Ed Ruscha, David Salle, Wilhelm Sasnal, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Sam Taylor-Wood, Andrew Tyndall, Clemens Von Wedemeyer, Mark Wallinger, and Andy Warhol

A new film series, Lights, Camera, Action: Artists' Films for the Cinema, opens at the Whitney Museum of American Art on February 8, 2007. The exhibition, organized by Whitney curator Chrissie Iles, brings together a remarkably wide-ranging group of films made by artists for the screen, allowing us to see the many ways in which artists have interpreted the language of cinema in their own terms. The exhibition remains on view through April 1.

Since the invention of film, cinema has been an inspiration - and a subject - for artists, and moving image installations have become a major part of the language of contemporary art. In recent years, artists have also begun to produce single screen films, made to be screened in the cinema, rather than the gallery. Some of the artists in this exhibition address the language and mythologies of Hollywood. Others construct narratives that evoke independent film. The exhibition includes classic early films by Joseph Cornell, such as Rose Hobart, Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's enduring Beat anthem Pull My Daisy, and Samuel Beckett's FILM, starring Buster Keaton, as well as key narrative films of the1960s and 1970s by Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Yvonne Rainer, Babette Mangolte, Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall, Yoko Ono and John Lennon.

Also included are rare screenings of films by David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Robert Longo, Cindy Sherman, Larry Clark, and Rebecca Horn, who first came to prominence in the 1980s, and whose films sought to occupy both the worlds of independent and commercial cinema.

The show also features films by a generation of artists who emerged in the 1990s and developed a different approach, making both films specifically for the cinema, and installations using the moving image. In many cases, their single screen films, like those of the previous generation, are part of a larger body of works in other materials, including sculpture, photography, drawing and painting. These artists include Douglas Gordon, Tacita Dean, Matthew Barney, Sharon Lockhart, Shirin Neshat, Wilhelm Sasnal, Laurie Simmons, Johan Grimonprez, Tracy Emin, Clemens von Wedemeyer, and Isaac Julien, who began his career as an independent filmmaker. A small group of filmmakers who have influenced artists moving into film and who have also explored the gallery context - Jean-Luc Godard, Derek Jarman, Chantal Akerman, Chris Marker - are also included.

On Saturday, March 3, there will be a one-night-only screening of "Destricted" - a series of seven erotic films by acclaimed artists and directors Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Marco Brambilla, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noé, Richard Prince, and Sam Taylor-Wood, commissioned by Mel Agace, Andrew Hale, and Neville Wakefield.

In association with Lights, Camera, Action: Artists' Films for the Cinema, Mark Wallinger's Sleeper will be presented in its New York premiere by Artprojx NY + Anthony Reynolds Gallery at the Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue, at 2nd Street), February 22-24, with screenings at 10 pm each evening. For further information, visit http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org or call (212) 505-5181.

The Whitney Museum is deeply grateful to Barney Rossett/Evergreen Review for making Samuel Beckett's FILM available for this program.

Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street - New York

stampa

permanent link