To book tickets call 02078878888 or visit www.tate.org.uk/modern

Friday 21, September 2007
Starr Auditorium, Level 2

First Screening · Second Screening · Third Screening

First Screening (Session One)

Keynote presentation: Colin MacCabe

Distinguished Professor of English and Film at Pittsburgh University and Professor of English and Humanities at Birkbeck College, London. He has published widely on film and literature with particular emphasis on Joyce, Godard and topics in the history and theory of language. His most recent publications are T.S. Eliot and The Butcher Boy. He has been producing documentary and fiction films since 1985. A recent production was Chris Marker's OWLS AT NOON Prelude: The Hollow Men at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. He was a founder member of the London Consortium, its Chairman from 1995-2005, and is now Associate Director.

Graham Gussin, Spill, 2006, super16 mm, 15 min

Spill uses cinematic device or effect to deal with notions of threshold and appearance. Its use of fog to evoke a feeling of the uncanny and the sublime situates it in the Romantic tradition of painting. It also references the horror and science fiction films of the 1950's, as well as contemporary commercial music videos. Fog and mist were, and still are, used in Hollywood productions to designate a shift in aspect - a movement from the natural to the supernatural. Spill is funded by Arts Council England, London with the support of Film London Artist's Moving Image Network.

Filipa César, Rapport, 2007, DV, 15 min

Rapport is a video based on the documentation-footage of a Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) seminar. NLP is a particular approach taken to personal development which is based on 'modelling', creating models of human behaviour. Adherents argue that an individual's perception of the world can be changed by reproducing the behaviours and beliefs of those who have achieved 'excellence'. The early focus of NLP was the study of the underlying patterns in language and techniques of noted and successful therapists in hypnotherapy, gestalt therapy and family therapy. The patterns discovered were adapted for general communication and effecting change. The basic idea of the exercises of NLP is a kind of a staging of the self in different times and spaces. Usually different characters are built up to embody the often paradoxical characteristics of the self. By building this "inner-film", one opens the chance of re-editing it. There are 3 figures in each process: the A (the client) the B (the driver) and C (the witness). In NLP, "Rapport" is the word used to describe the ability of the driver (B) to establish sympathetic relation with the client (A).

Cao Guimarães & Rivane Neuenschwander, Epilogue, 2006, DV, 6 min

After the Brazilian carnival, in the melancholy aftermath of Ash Wednesday, the ants begin their own profane, multicoloured feast to the rhythm of matchbox samba.

Hans Op de Beeck, All Together Now..., 2005, BetaSp, 6 min 30 sec

The video is a tragi-comic portrait of three groups of people attending different social gatherings. The camera pans slowly along the three table settings, each depicting a separate event. The first group, comprising people in their late seventies, are gathered after a funeral, at the table set with coffee and cakes. The second presents an elaborate wedding party with the bride and groom and their families. The final setting shows a birthday party for a well-to-do paterfamilias in a tasteful designer setting.

Karin Kihlberg & Reuben Henry, The Poets, 2006, , 9 minutes

Two Chinese Poets play out a drama of poetic verse within a destroyed film set. The subtitled English text, which contains snippets chosen from the poetry of T.S. Elliot, does not in fact match what the actors actually say in Mandarin. They are merely talking through their physical stage directions. The film set is what remains from a Chinese television show; all the fittings of the house are missing, leaving just an empty shell. The two characters move around the various rooms of the house, which sits lifelessly in the middle of a large film studio, but they never leave it. Combining this with the seamless loop in the video, the two characters appear trapped in a never-ending limbo of recital and high drama. The subtitled verses are all removed from the original bodies of text in which T.S. Elliot presented them. However they are given the appearance of making sense by the intention of the actors. The Mandarin script is specially synchronised to the syllables of the poetic verse, and the actions of the actors creates a dramatic interpretation of the verse to further correlate the speech with the subtitles. The viewers reading of the work will differ depending on their knowledge of English and Mandarin; the dramatic acting, the poetic verse and beautiful setting and soundtrack combine to give an impression on the viewer, but ultimately its appreciation alters significantly depending on the viewer's knowledge or naivety, and it is the border between these two positions on which The Poets' precariously sits.

Johan Grimonprez, Double Take, 2007, DV, 17 min 45 sec

Grimonprez' feature-length Double Take, an adaptation of a J. L. Borges' story, portrays a world of doppelgangers, starring professional Hitchcock look-alike Ron Burrage. Curretly in post-production at Anna Sanders Films (Paris), it is planned to be released end of 2007. A first chapter, called Looking for Alfred, premiered at the Photographer's Gallery (London) and the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels). It went on to win a Spirit Award (New York), as well as the 1st prize at the ZKM International Media Award 2005.

Second Screening (Session Two)

Keynote presentation: Chus Martínez

Director of Frankfurter Kunstverein. Before taking up her current position in 2005, she curated numerous exhibitions at Sala Rekalde in Bilbao, and before that at the Parkers Box in Williamsburg (Brooklyn, NYC), an art-space which she also co-ran with Alun Williams. Between 2001 and 2002 she was in charge of programming Sala Montcada at the "la Caxia" Foundation in Barcelona. The programme, called "Lowest Common Denominator", aimed to explore how artists', curators', institutions and audiences' expectations towards an exhibition project contribute to, and often transform, its progress. She worked with various artists on this project including Dora García, Begoña Muñoz, Oriol Font, Elmgreen & Dragset, and Tobias Rehberger. She is currently writing a doctoral thesis on the interface between aesthetics and art philosophy.

Jeroen Kooijmans, The Fish Pond Song, 2007, , 4 min

The Fish Pond Song is a long term project that is divided into episodes. It deals with religion, disbelief and superstition and is set in and around a small lake in the Dutch landscape. The film project does not have a clear scenario instead the work develops at the location, controlled by the improvisation of the characters. In this episode the artist focuses on a small ghost army. Once upon a time there was a war. It's a fantasy war. In it the soldiers wander and wonder, they wait and get bored, move on, pass through the water and climb on land.

Dora García, Zimmer, Gespräche (Rooms, Conversations), 2006, HDV, 28 min

The setting for Zimmer, Gespräche ('Rooms, Conversations') is an encounter between an officer of the Stasi (the all-powerful East-German police until 1989) and a civilian informant in a Leipzig apartment. However, neither the Stasi nor the city of Leipzig is ever explicitly mentioned. The video is thus set in an undetermined time and space, only discernible through the accent of the actors and the clothes they wear. Constructing a realist scene is not Dora García's intention, and Rooms, Conversations is neither a documentary nor a documentary fiction. Instead, García seeks to use the parameters of a given historical situation to communicate abstract notions such as fear, control, authority, submissiveness, obedience, absurdity, power and surveillance. These notions are all closely connected to recurring themes in the artist's work: secrecy, archiving, the community and the codes of human behaviour.

Miranda Pennell, You Made Me Love You, 2005, BetaSp, 3 min 36 sec

Twenty-one dancers play a game of cat and mouse with an unpredictable camera.

Rui Calçada Bastos, Ambitious, 2007, DV, 7 min 15 sec (3 min 7 sec loop)

The artist casts himself handcuffed inside a police van, flanked by officers and on his way to his own trial. The title of the piece indicates that the artist is accused of being too ambitious, and he will have to testify in court. An angry crowd is waiting for him at the tribunal. The video fades out as he enters the court, then fades in as he exits. He is harassed by the mob as he leaves the court, handcuffed, and is pushed into the police van. The sequence is looped in an endless cycle of "crime and punishment", and the viewer is left as juror, with responsibility for condemning the artist guilty or innocent?

Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Complaints Choirs, 2007, DV, 10 min

In May 2005 the artists invited the people of Birmingham to complain about anything they wanted, and to sing their complaints together with fellow complainers. The project was open to everybody - no singing skills required. Many people sent in their complaints - about Birmingham, about other people, about world issues and most of all, about themselves. Fifteen people finally signed up to the project. During a two-week complaints workshop, with the help of local musician Mike Hurley, the participants transformed the complaints into an impressive choir song. The First Complaints Choir of Birmingham became a surprise success and soon after many requests were received from people who hoped for a complaints choir in their hometown as well. They expressed (with a certain pride) that the people in their particular town are especially talented complainers: either by quantity (Belgrade), existentialism (St. Petersburg) or sophistication (Buenos Aires). So far Complaints Choirs have been organized in Birmingham, Hamburg, Helsinki and St. Petersburg.

www.complaintschoir.org

Hiroharu Mori, Defocused Story, 2004, DV, 4 min 37 sec

This work is about a man who got on to a women-only subway car. (There is a subway in Tokyo which has a car for women-only during the rush hour to protect woman from sexual harassment.) The work represents an ambiguous isolation between woman and man. It questions who is isolated and detached in our society? The protagonist is humiliated by finding himself in the woman's car, but at the same time he realizes the woman in the car are cut-off from society.

Third Screening (Session Three)

Keynote presentation: João Fernandes

Director of Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Oporto. In 1985 he concluded a B.A degree in Modern Literature and Languages at the University of Oporto. He concluded the academic section of the Master's Degree Course in Portuguese Phonology at the University of Lisbon in 1992. He worked as a "free-lance" curator, organizing three editions of the Oporto Contemporary Art Festival. He curated the Portuguese representations in the 1st Johannesburg Art Biennale (1995), the 24th São Paulo Art Biennial (1998) and the Venice Biennale (2003). Since February 2003, he has served as Museum Director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art where he curated several exhibitions, working, among others, with artists like Ignasi Aballí, Artur Barrio, Massimo Bartolini, Christine Borland, Lourdes Castro, Tacita Dean, Didier Faustino, Douglas Gordon, Pierre Huyghe, Barry Le Va, Richard Long, Damian Ortega, Pedro Cabrita Reis, Lygia Pape, João Penalva, Jorge Queiroz, Paula Rego, Tobias Rehberger, Francesco Vezzoli and Christopher Williams.

Yael Bartana, Summer Camp, 2007, Digital Beta, 12 min

In July 2006, Yael Bartana documented the fourth summer camp initiated by ICHAD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. Palestinians, Israelis and citizens of various other countries gathered in the camp to build a house in the village of Anta, which was destroyed by Israeli authorities in December 2005. Since it has no building permit, the house will likely not stand for long and will be demolished by the Jerusalem municipality (which does not grant building permits to Palestinians living within its bounds). The video, "Summer Camp," is presented in a structure reminiscent of the "Assembly Hall" in which the first lectures, plays and film screenings were held during Israel's early years as a socialist country. The work uses audio-visual traits borrowed from Zionist propaganda films of the 1930s and 1940s that depict the realization of the pioneering Zionist dream of forming a nation-state - "We came to Israel to build and to be built." This is the central element in Bartana's work, which focuses on ICHAD's oppositional strategy, using the Zionist ethos of construction as a form of protest against the Israeli Regime. It also raises questions regarding the perception of dissent, which is usually understood as demolishing rather than building. In Bartana's work, the Israeli ethos of construction and revival turns into a protest mechanism that Israelis and Palestinians use against the state of Israel. (Galit Eilat)

Rä di Martino, The Red Shoes, 2007, 16mm, 4 min 45 sec

Two young teenagers lying on the strong roots of a big tree are revealed in a long panoramic shot that starts with the image of a waterfall at night. However the water flows upwards, as do the leaves 'falling' from the trees. The image is shot in reverse and has a 'day for night' effect. Underwater details and water reflections link to another panoramic shot of the same situation, but it is a different kiss. Then it loops back again. The work is a continuous loop, with just a few seconds of black that separate the 'different kisses'. The video recalls a story and resembles something elusive - a hazy memory or a dream. The film appears to be part of a feature film, perhaps one that we have seen before but can't remember the name. It can be read as found footage, a fake found footage.

Julika Rudelius, Forever, 2006, DV, 16 min 40 sec

For this piece the artist cast five American women of a certain age for their beauty. They are shot posing at upscale private swimming pools, where they talk about their ideas of beauty, ways to obtain it and its relationship with privilege. The viewer never hears the questioner or the questions, which circle around intangible ideas such as what it means to be happy and/ or beautiful. The video is punctuated by the women taking self-portraits with a polaroid camera.

Meiro Koizumi, Art of Awakening, 2005, DV, 9 min

Three men are asked, respectively, "Do you want to feel the Freedom of Spirit?" As they reply "yes", they are asked to "poke the thing with a stick", and eventually they start to feel "nice". The audience has to fantasize what they are poking at and how they are feeling nice as the tool is hidden from them until towards the end of the video. Art of Awakening provides the viewer an obscene play of suggestion and revelation, and questions a big issue like the "Freedom of Spirit".

Guido van der Werve, Nummer Negen. The day I didn't turn with the world, 2007, HDV, 9 min

This work is the registration of a 24-hour performance on the geographic North Pole. In 24 hours the earth turns once, counter clockwise, around its axis. For the piece the artist stood on the axis for the same duration, and turned clockwise. Thus, for one day he didn't turn with the world. He was able to use the sun as a guide, because it does not go up or down in that part of the world. Therefore he could follow his own shadow.

Guy Ben-Ner, id give it to you if i could, but i borrowed it, 2007, MiniDV, 11 min 40 sec

The artist and his two children visit a "readymade" show in a museum space: among the exhibits are Picasso's bull head, Duchamp's bicycle wheel on a stool, Tinguely's cyclograveur and Beuys' Zerstorte batterie. Strangely enough, all these sculptures incorporate bicycle parts as readymades. Together they have all the parts needed to build a fully functional bicycle, and to go out for a family bicycle trip.