| Beaconsfield, Newport Street, Vauxhall, London, SE11
12 May - 13 June 1999
Chris
Marker is arguably France's most important filmmaker. His work encompasses
and collapses story telling with documentary, the most keenly observed
travelogue with sci-fi. As an editor of images he consistently breaks
with convention to achieve an extraordinary filmic language which takes
on humanity itself - life, death, time, history and memory.
For Marker to make an image and to witness an image is to fix it to memory.
Silent Movie is a tribute to his memory of the era of silent films. The
work comprises a five channel video installation which recalls the allure
of early cinema through a collage of resonant moving images, some retrieved
from pre 30s American and French cinema, and some shot specifically for
this work. A metal tower, consciously referring to "hardcore constructivism",
houses five monitors. Each monitor has a theme linked to early cinema,
The Journey, The Face, The Gesture, The Waltz and the fifth channel is
a collection of ninety-four silent era intertitles. The channels travel
through a computer interface which scrambles the sequences so that there
is a continually changing array of images - each moment is unrepeatable.
As with silent film, there is an independent source for accompanying music,
again, non-synchronised with the images.
Exhibition
initiated by Peer and presented at Beaconsfield.
Silent Movie was organised by the Wexner Center for the Arts, the University
of Ohio, Columbus Ohio.
Beaconsfield is financially assisted by the London Arts Board
Publication
Silent Movie and selected screenings
Films Screened
From Chris to Christo (in French) 1985 24'20"
Three Video Haikus 1994 4'09"
La sixieme face du Pentagone (in French) 1968 28'00"
Prime Time in the Camps 1993 28'00"
Chat ecoutant la musique 1985 3'11"
L'ambassade 1973 21'00"
Junkopia 1981 6'00"
Slon tango 1983 4'23"
La jetee 1962 28'00"
Sans Soleil 1982 110'00"
A Grin without a Cat - (part one) Fragile Hands 1977 / 1993 90'00"
A Grin without a Cat - (part two) Severed Hands 1977 / 1993 90'00"
Si j'avais quatre dromadaries (in French) 1967 52'00"
The Last Bolshevik 1993 104'00"
Press
Art Monthly review
The Independent review
Sight and Sound review
Untitled review
Londonart.co.uk review
| 
Installation of Silent Movie at Beaconsfield
Installation of Silent Movie at Beaconsfield
|
