CINEPLEX, Secession 2009, Photo: Pez Hejduk
CINEPLEX presents an exemplary selection of recent Austrian experimental films in an architecture specifically developed for this exhibition that extends across three floors at the Secession. The exhibition project aims to counteract the marginal reception of Austria’s extraordinarily lively experimental-film scene in the art world and to build a bridge between the static visual arts and film, two disciplines that largely exist side by side.
CINEPLEX, Secession 2009, Photo: Pez Hejduk
Norbert Pfaffenbichler and Lotte Schreiber, who are active both as artists and as filmmakers, have selected seven films that share a focus on the “filmic” in film. The works engage the fundamental conditions of the medium―its history, its techniques and technologies, the iconography of film, and dramaturgic conventions. Taking up the tradition of seminal Austrian experimental films created in the 1950s and 1960s by Peter Kubelka, Kurt Kren, and others, they also lend new topicality to it, not least by employing and addressing digital technology.
CINEPLEX, Secession 2009, Photo: Pez Hejduk
Whereas the lively discussion in recent years about the ways in which filmic works are presented in the art context largely focused on installational aspects of cinematographic technology, Pfaffenbichler/Schreiber propose an almost contrary approach. They have developed an exhibition architecture consisting of projection rooms that are completely black inside and outside; installed as spaces within the space, they explicitly gesture toward the cinematic apparatus. The black of the wallpaper is punctuated only on the entrance walls by white letters that spell basic information about each film. In the fashion of multiplex theaters, the exhibition shows a single film per black box, affording viewers the linear perception of individual films characteristic of the cinema as well as parallel receptions directed by the individual visitor’s course through the exhibition.
Annja Krautgasser, Innerer Monolog, film still, 2008
Filmmuseum
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Austrian Filmmuseum will host an event on Monday, 9/14/2009 starting at 7:30pm. The premiere of Zwölf Boxkämpfer jagen Viktor quer über den großen Sylter Deich 140 9, a film by Johann Lurf, and boston buzz by stadtmusik (Sam Auinger, Dietmar Offenhuber, Hannes Strobl) will be followed by a panel discussion about Role Playing with Film: Cube, Box, Cinema, Museum featuring Josef Dabernig (artist; Secession, Vienna), Alexander Horwath (Austrian Filmmuseum, Vienna), Mike Sperlinger (LUX, London), and Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Arsenal, Berlin) and moderated by Reinhard Braun (steirischer herbst, Graz).
Ben Pointeker, . ..... .:.:...:::ccccoCCoooo::, film still, 2007
Catalogue
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CINEPLEX. Experimentalfilme aus Österreich 60 pages, dimension: 23 x 31cm, 32 color illustrations, 13 black/white illustrations authors: Rike Frank, Olaf Möller, Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Lotte Schreiber, German/English. Secession 2009, ISBN 978-3-902592-24-8 ___________________ available in the shop |
Lotte Schreiber, BORGATE, film still, 2008
The Secession is supported by:
Erste Bank – Partner of the Secession
Wien Kultur
Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur
Friends of the Secession
Cooperation-, Media partners, Non-cash benefit:
Der Standard
Filmmuseum Wien
Ö1 Club
Silver Server
Gebläsetechnik GmbH
Viennale 09
Trumer Privatbrauerei
Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Notes on Film 02, film still, 2005
| MICOL ASSAËL | EXHIBITION PROGRAM 2009 |
For further information and photographic material please contact:
Tamara Schwarzmayr
Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession
Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5875307-21, Fax: +43-1-5875307-34
presse@secession.at