November film screenings

Evening sessions of films showing in “an unpredictable expression of human potential”.

Screenings start at 8 pm

Wednesday 15 November
also known as jihadi (120’), 2017
Eric Baudelaire

Produced in the wake of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, the film traces the journey and trial of a young man from the suburbs of Paris who traveled via Egypt to Syria to join isis. The subject’s path to radicalism is explored both through judicial transcripts and through a series of landscape shots filmed at the locations traversed by the subject: a biography determined not by what the subject did, but by what the subject saw. Baudelaire’s film positions itself as both a remake and a test of the landscape theory proposed by Japanese filmmaker Masao Adachi in his 1969 masterpiece a.k.a. serial killer, questioning how these landscapes reflect the social and political structures that form the backdrop for this journey of alienation and return.

Wednesday 29 November
new town utopia (33’), 2017
Christopher Ian Smith

Basildon in Essex is well known for being the hometown of both Depeche mode and yazoo, but also suffers from a pretty terrible reputation. Built as a ‘new town,’ it was part of a plan to create social utopias and a “new type of citizen,” but the town is now a cultural void. New town utopia explores these grand dreams and the harsh realities of life in Basildon and the characters depicted in the film are all artists and musicians from the town. They range from steve walters (the puppeteer behind old man stan) to key players in the early 80’s electro scene.

From left to night (34’), 2015
Wendelien Van Oldenborgh

From left to night (2015) is an experimental film production in which a number of seemingly unconnected players, places, events, subjects, and histories are drawn from a London neighborhood – an area of deprivation bordered by the wealthiest sites of the city. over the course of a two-day film shoot, a meeting occurs between six people, three locations and the various subjects and forms of knowledge that they bring with them. These include urban tensions – such as the unresolved histories of the 2011 London riots – as well as new feminist and racial theories, music, 1960s idealist architecture, and the ways in which each of the protagonists relates to these concerns.

Wednesday 6 December
Mahjouba (44’), 2016
eric van hove

The Mahjouba initiative is eric van hove’s long-term post-Fordist project combining African craft, 3d printing, and industrial production. Directed by Moroccan filmmaker Meriem Abid, this film casts the artists’ team of craftsmen impersonating themselves in van hove’s atelier in Marrakech. The film aims to give a context and background to the Mahjouba initiative, by rooting it in a contemporary Moroccan context. The ongoing artistic project aims to reintegrate African craft into mainstream industry by manufacturing electric mopeds for local markets, primarily using materials and techniques from the craft sector. the initiative directly responds to the presence of nearly three million craftsmen in morocco whose trade is increasingly threatened by globalization, and the noor power station project that proposes to generate 42 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020.

Eric Baudelaire is a visual artist and filmmaker. his films letters to max (2014), the ugly one (2013), and the anabasis of may and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi, and 27 years without images (2011) were shown at the fidmarseille, Locarno, Toronto, new york, and Rotterdam film festivals. his research-based practice installations incorporate photography, printmaking, performance, publications, and screenings. He has exhibited work in centre Pompidou, Paris; the Witte de With, Rotterdam; Fridericianum, Kassel; Berkeley art museum; kadist art foundation, san Francisco; bétonsalon, Paris; bergen kunsthall; gasworks, London; and the hammer museum, Los Angeles. His films and installations are in the collections of the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; macba, Barcelona; centre Pompidou, Paris; museum of modern art, new york; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Christopher Ian Smith is a filmmaker and audiovisual artist with a background in television and music. for many years he was a dj/vj and performer with the audiovisual group addictive tv. he was involved with the production and live performance of a wide range of experimental films, audiovisual cut-ups and motion graphics. this included performances and screened work at festivals and venues across the globe, including: centre Pompidou, ica, and national film theatre. now he is primarily focused on working with moving images. His films span documentary and fiction, sometimes merging the two. he is primarily focused on the interplay of landscape, folklore, architecture and the uncanny. his films include the experimental narratives arterial, a long walk to sleep and recent projects include the improvised folk-thriller sulphur. New town utopia launches in 2017 as a video installation, feature-length documentary film, and a publication of photography, prose and poetry. new town utopia will embark on an ambitious screening and installation tour across 2017 and 2018. Chris’s films and moving image work have been screened at festivals globally, and he has been selected for a number of film development and talent schemes, including Edinburgh international film festival talent lab and the film London micro-market. he also founded and programmed the future film symposium emerge which is part the east end and cork film festivals.

Eric Van Hove studied at the école de recherche graphique in Brussels and received a master’s degree in traditional Japanese calligraphy at the Tokyo Gakugei University in Tokyo. he obtained a PhD degree from the Tokyo University of the arts in 2008. acknowledging transcendentalist influences throughout his conceptual practice, van hove’s approach often tries to oppose a more spiritual and decentralized approach to the eurocentric perspective of the western contemporary art world. having made site-specific works in over 100 countries by the age of 35, van hove counts among the most traveled artist of his generation. In 2016, his Marrakesh atelier started working on what the artist called the Mahjouba initiative, a long-term post-fordist project mixing African craft, 3d printing, and industrial production.

Wendelin Van Oldenborgh (b. Netherlands) develops works, whereby the cinematic format is used as a methodology for production and as the basic language for various forms of presentation. she often uses the format of a public film shoot, collaborating with participants in different scenarios, to co-produce a script and orientate the work towards its final outcome. with these works, which look at the structures that form and hinder us, she participated in various large biennials, and in smaller dedicated shows. recent presentations include: a solo presentation titled cinema olanda at the dutch pavilion in the 57th Venice biennial 2017; .as for the future. (2017) solo at daad gallery, berlin, prologue: squat/anti-squat (2016) at the Jerusalem show, Palestine biennial east Jerusalem; form left to night (2015), solo at the showroom London. Van Oldenburg has exhibited widely including in raw material company Dakar (sn), tate Liverpool (UK), muhka Antwerp (b), van abbe museum Eindhoven, generali foundation Vienna as well as 2nd biennial of Kochi-muziris 2014, danish pavilion at the Venice biennial 2011, 4rth Moscow biennial 2011, the 29e Bienal de Sao Paulo 2010 and at the 11th Istanbul biennial 2009. Van Oldenburg is a member of the (dutch) society for arts and a recipient of the dr. a.h. heineken prize for art (2014). A monographic publication, amateur, was published by Sternberg Press, Berlin; if I can’t dance, Amsterdam and the showroom, London in 2016.