An evening with Freek Wambacq

On the occasion of his work for In Light Of 25 Years, Witte de With welcomes artist Freek Wambacq for a conversation with Samuel Saelemakers (Associate Curator Witte de With) on Thursday 2 April at 7 pm. Wambacq will discuss his newly commissioned work Cheval au galop avant Muybridge, Cheval au galop après Muybridge, Cheval au galop après Broodthaers, Cheval dansant le hula, which was inspired by a work of Marcel Broodthaers shown at Witte de With in 1996 during Still/A Novel. This two part-project by Chris Dercon paid homage to the 100th anniversary of cinema and comprised of an exhibition as well as an eponymous documentary that Dercon directed for Dutch television (VPRO).

The conversation with Wambacq will be followed by a screening of this documentary, which deals with “questions about the future of cinema, the increasing use of film by artists, and the current (in 1996, a.n.) tendency of presenting film in the context of the art museum.” The first part of the documentary deals with the demise of cinema and the loneliness of this art, which exists “by grace of the other arts”, amidst an intensifying image industry. Simultaneously, because of the bankruptcy of commercial cinema and television, new experiments with film imagery become possible. The second part shows representatives of the other arts, such as visual artists Bruce Nauman and Jeff Wall, curators such as Harald Szeeman, photographer Susan Meiselas and theater director Liz LeCompte. More than ever these arts are imitating cinema, often resulting in more exciting works than what is produced by film studios and theatres.

Others featured in the documentary are: Chantal Ackerman, Matthew Barney, Raymond Bellour, Kerry Brougher, Hartmut Bitomsky, Catherine David, Craigie Horsfield, Rem Koolhaas, James Lingwood. Bruce Mau, Marco Müller, Stephen Prina, Charles Ray, and Christopher Williams.