Now in its fourth edition, Artists’ Film International presents an overview of film, video and animation production by international artists. An initiative of Whitechapel Gallery, London, the works are selected by eleven institutions from around the world. Formerly called Art in the Auditorium, the series has changed its name to reflect the vague boundaries between audiovisual productions and the ways those productions are exhibited.
Artists’ Film International opens on February 2, 2013. The event, which is sponsored by Tenaris – Organización Techint, will continue throughout the month of February at Proa’s Auditorium.
As in previous years, for this edition of Artists’ Film Internationaleach participating institution engages in an independent process to select the work of an artist. Together, the works provide a diverse overview of the narrative possibilities of independent audiovisual work and reveal conceptual and formal experimentation in contemporary video, film and animation.
Common to works by Alejandro Cesarco, Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio, and Aleksandar Jestrovic Jasmedin is a reflection on the ideas of migration, displacement and journey in individual stories interlaced with socio-economic and political conditions.
Works by Liu Chuang, Anetta Mona Chisa and Licia Tkacova, Dan Finsel and Sriwhana Spong deal with performance, from urban interventions to early 20th-century dance, pop culture and revival.
Collective memory in relation to stories both political and personal is the concern of works by Ben Hagari, Sefer Memisoglu and Nguyen Trinh Thi.
As part of this edition, Proa has selected two works by Alejandro Cesarco (Montevideo, 1975): Everness (2008, 12 min.) and Zeide Isaac (2009, 6 min.). In Everness, Cesarco explores the end of youth and the loss of innocence through a free interpretation of a scene from James Joyce’s The Dead. In the film Zeide Isaac, the artist’s grandfather recounts his experience as a Holocaust survivor. The story, which was written by Cesarco, addresses the gap between an actual event and how it is told, remembered, attested to and rewritten.
The following institutions and artists were invited to participate in the fourth edition of Artists’ Film International:
Ballroom Marfa, USA / Dan Finsel
Belgrade Cultural Center, Serbia / Aleksandar Jestrovi Jamesdin
City Gallery, New Zealand / Sriwhana Spong
Fundación Proa, Argentina / Alejandro Cesarco
GAMeC, Italy / Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio
Istanbul Modern, Turkey / Sefer MemiÅŸoÄŸlu
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein Video Forum, Germany / Anetta Mona Chişa and Lucia Tkáĉova
New Media Center, Israel / Ben Hagari
Para/Site, China / Liu Chuang
San Art, Vietnam / Nguyên Trinh Thi
Whitechapel Gallery, United Kingdom / Corin Sworn
Artists’ Film International is organized by Whitechapel Gallery.
Sponsored by Tenaris – Organización Techint