Depiction part V

Introduction by Renske Janssen / Nicolaus Schafhausen, 5 min.

Matias Faldbakken, Black Screen, 2005, DVD, 1 min.
Matias Faldbakken’s video Black Screen consists of a single shot in which the camera travels through a cinema whose screen has been replaced by a black rectangle. The video combines the traditional symbol for entertainment, the silver screen, with the key symbol for not-belonging and for negation in the form of the black, anarchist flag. Faldbakken is fascinated with systems of knowledge, of power, order and exchange. He is interested in how art and artists can be active participants in these systems, and uses text and images to highlight their influence. He has written two novels under the pseudonym Abo Rasul (‘Macht und Rebel’ and ‘The Cocka Hola Company’).

Sarah Morris, Miami, 2004, DVD, 27:30 min.
Sarah Morris is known for her film Los Angeles (2005) and abstract paintings and prints, all of which visually explore the built environment and our relationship with it. Miami, projected less frequently of late but equally important, is a portrait of the eponymous city, the crossroads of the tourist industry and drugs trade, immigration and exile, host to a national beauty contest for dogs.

Jordan Wolfson, Infinite Melancholy, 2003, DVD, 4 min.
Followed by Q&A, 10 min.
In the films, videos and installations of Jordan Wolfson, the idea of art proposes the field in which a personal experience and communication is possible. In the graphic film Infinite Melancholy, Wolfson takes the name of late actor who played Superman, Christopher Reeve, as a possible symbol for a decayed optimism that dominated the media after 9/11.

Emily Wardill, Basking in what feels like an “ocean of grace”, I soon realise that I’m not looking at it, but rather that I AM it, recognising myself, 2006, 16 mm, 6 min.
Followed by Q&A, 10 min.
In Emily Wardill’s recent film, she continues her research into the exemplary and symbolic. Using a building in Hammersmith (London), adjacent rooms are shown separated by a one-way mirror in order for various organizations to construct and monitor conversations. The participants are seen speaking, but shown without their own words, thus becoming images. Wardill composed the soundtrack of her film on a computer software that would appear graphically symmetrical when laid out as sheet music. The centre of the music, where it began to play in reverse, coincided with the middle of the film.

Jesper Just, Something to Love, 2004, DVD, 8:10 min.
Jesper Just explores the clichés with which different cinematographic genres ‘ from gangster films to musicals ‘ have depicted masculine identity. He generates other stereotypes, recurring emblems that he employs in order to develop a story of the emancipation of the male identity that goes beyond social and cultural conventions. Staying with narrative reiteration, Just always chooses the same actor for the role of the young protagonist, thus making him a sort of alter ego of the artist. In Something to Love the conventional screen kiss between man and woman is no dramatic climax but a mechanical ritual that leaves a residue of ambiguity and hollowness.
Panel discussion

The films will be followed by a panel discussion examining the critical use of cinematographic tools such as sound, editing and image in relation to the mechanics of manipulation (45 min).
With guest speakers Emily Wardill, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Jordan Wolfson, moderated by Renske Janssen.