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LONDON S03E01: 15 WAYS TO SLEEP ON A TRAIN
8 Comments- Add comment Written on 02-Sep-2009 by patencia
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It's September already: some people come, some people go. It's the 'moving month'. As for me, I'm back. It's been a while. Things have happened during the summer. Mostly good things, I would say. It's been a busy but happy summer. Hello London. Hello again, from my two big new windows and my new mac.
Illustration via Madido (who one summer saw me sleeping in position #14 or was it #13?)
Send to a friend LONDON. SEASON 2 . EPISODE 1.
4 Comments- Add comment Written on 20-Jan-2009 by patencia 9.40 am Gatwick. I’m back in London – 11.20 the lift doesn’t work – 5 floors carrying my 20kilos suitcase – open the door (how small) – everything is clean – where are they? - I’m happy to be here – Am I really? – Yes, I guess. But I miss them – Off to Warhol exhibition.
Ok. Play it.
this post was delayed 2 days
FILM INSTITUTES, MUSEUMS AND SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS
0 Comments- Add comment Written on 08-Dec-2008 by patencia__67__(@0x300).jpg)
Traditional (visual) art museums are places to exhibit and reflect about works of art, especially in the context of other works that are or have been considered artistic within art history. Paintings, sculptures, and even some installations make it possible to see them individually and, at the same time, perceive the relation they bear to each other in the context of art history. Temporal arts such as music or cinema, in contrast, make it more difficult for “popularizing” institutions such as Music Theaters or Cinemateques to provide their visitors with this "twofold" experience. It seems more complicated to play say Debussy, Ravel and Dukas, simultaneously in the same room so you can listen to them at the same time and get the idea of what the impressionist music is. Similarly, it isn’t easy to project The Godfather, Jaws and Star Wars in a room entitled "Post-Classical American Cinema" while having Le Beau Serge, Breathless and The 400 Blows in the previous one devoted to the Nouvelle Vague.
Probably that’s why I found the small exhibition of Michael Snow’s work at the BFI particularly appealing. Snow is, together with Stan Brakhage, arguably the king of cinematic avant-gard. But, isolated from the works of his contemporaries, predecessors and antecessors, it is difficult to understand very well what his role is within film history; unless, of course, you're an insider. His works are a constant reflection of the specificity of the film medium, and frequently they are as interesting as they are exasperating. This time, however, since they are just four short pieces, they are actually entertaining and illustrative.
SSHTOORTY, is a narrative film of two minutes in which you see simultaneously (superposed) the beginning and the end of the film. Solar Breath, records the movement of a curtain over a window, and I guess, shows how perceiving a natural scene through film is very much like seeing the scene happening in the real life. Sheeploop is a 17 min. video of a landscape in which you first see one sheep grazing and then, as the minutes go by you get to see… two more sheep grazing. That turns interesting, however, when you get to see the next installation. That/Cela/Dat explicitly (and less contemplatively) informs you of things such as the time an average spectator spends regarding an artwork in a museum; and implicitly, it reminds us that films always impose on us a specific time of consumption and some peculiar conditions for viewing them.
I’m not sure whether the average spectator will easily relate Snow’s work to the films shown on the other four (??) screens. But anyway, for those who can enjoy the experience, the BFI might be the most suitable place to look for it.
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