Artists’ Moving Image Network Screening Weekend

Artists’ Moving Image Network Screening Weekend
Guest curated by Herb Shellenberger
5–7 July 2019, Leeds

The inaugural Pavilion Artists Moving Image Network Screening Weekend is a cinema-based group exhibition focused on bringing the work of Yorkshire-based artists in dialogue with international artists and filmmakers. It’s my hope that screening the films of these 13 selected artists will contribute towards ongoing efforts to sketch an increasingly rich picture of creative filmmaking and visual arts in the region, both contemporary and historical. At the same time, placing these works in conversation with artists from Belgium, France, Germany, India, Japan, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain and USA will create connections between themes, forms, contexts and aesthetic techniques, as well as hopefully some wild juxtapositions.

This is not meant to be a tidy survey of ‘the best works’, but is admittedly—and unashamedly—a subjective response to films submitted by members of Pavilion’s Artists Moving Image Network, a monthly critical forum for local artists.

Over three days and seven screening programmes, there will be films warm and familiar. Unapologetically provocative, unceasingly strange, unabashedly erotic and unquestionably pleasurable delights await the curious viewer. I hope you will join myself, Pavilion and the featured artists (who will be in conversation) for an exciting weekend.

—Herb Shellenberger

Opening screening: Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil with Anouk De Clercq’s Black, 5 July, 6.15pm →
Theme from ‘The Gentle Touch’, 6 July, 2.30pm →
Nobody’s Child, 6 July, 5.15pm →
It’s Only A Paper Moon, 6 July, 8.15pm →
Designer Collection, 7 July, 1pm →
Sail the Summer Winds, 7 July, 3.30pm →
Counterspy, 7 July, 7.30pm →

Part of Index – a visual arts festival during Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019.

Index is supported by Leeds City Council and Leeds Inspired.

Black, Anouk De Clercq, 2015

Self-Digitalisation, James Thompson, 2015

*Herb is a curator and writer originally from Philadelphia and based in London. He has curated screenings at institutions such as Arnolfini, Light Industry, Lightbox Film Center, LUX, New York University and Taipei Center for Contemporary Arts. Since 2016, he has been Associate Programmer for Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival. He curated the series Independent Frames: American Experimental Animation in the 1970s + 1980s which premiered at Tate Modern and is touring internationally. In 2018, he curated an exhibition at The Maslow Collection (Scranton, USA) and co-programmed the Flaherty Seminar series Common Visions at Anthology Film Archives, New York.

Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil with Anouk De Clercq’s Black
Fri, 5 July, 6.15pm at Hyde Park Picture House

Sans Soleil is an important film not so much for its place in history—as one of the all-time most influential film essays—but because it shows the complex joys, pains, contemplation and sensuality that cinema has the power to convey. Whether revisiting it once again or coming to the film anew, it reveals strikingly heartrending images, vibratory aural stimulation and the unshakeable humanity of the many anonymous human and animal beings positioned in front of the camera lens.

Like all of Chris Marker’s films, Sans Soleil is at once a collaborative collage and an utterly personal vision. One of the film’s opening lines (“if they don’t see happiness in the picture, at least they’ll see the black”) became an invitation to include Anouk De Clercq’s short 35mm film Black, which should be shown at the beginning of every cinema screening.

Introduction by guest curator Herb Shellenberger

Films
Black
Anouk De Clercq, 2015, Belgium, 5 mins, 35mm

Sans Soleil
Chris Marker, 1983, France, 104 mins, 35mm

Location
Hyde Park Picture House
73 Brudenell Rd
Leeds
LS6 1JD

Tickets
£7.80. Book via Hyde Park Picure House (tickets available soon)

Sans Soleil, Chris Marker, 1983

Black, Anouk De Clercq, 2015

Theme From ‘The Gentle Touch’
Sat, 6 July, 2.30pm at Hyde Park Picture House

Stone and flesh, blood or electric circuit, feet on the ground versus data in the cloud. From automaton to avatar, artists reflect on the tension between our own individual, physical bodies and the animated, virtual body.

We love statues, though we resist the urge to become one. Refusing to be set in stone, we might need the carnal reminder of fleshy sensuality to snap us back to where we should be.

Post-screening discussion with Peter Samson, James Thompson and Rhian Cooke.

Films
The Love of Statues
Peter Samson, 2019, UK, 20 mins, digital

Colloque de chiens
Raul Ruiz, 1977, FR, 20 mins, 35mm

Self-Digitalisation
James Thompson, 2015, UK, 9 mins, digital

Au Père Lachaise
Jean-Daniel Pollet & Pierre-Marie Goulet, FR, 1986, 13 mins, 35mm

The Turning of the Helmet
Rhian Cooke 2018, UK, 3 mins, digital

Soft Body Goal
Jaakko Pallasvuo, 2017, Finland, 4 mins, digital

Ice Cream
Antoni Padrós, 1970, Spain, 8 mins, digital

Location
Hyde Park Picture House
73 Brudenell Rd
Leeds
LS6 1JD

Tickets
Free. Booking essential
Book now

The Love of Statues, Peter Samson, 2019

The Turning of the Helmet, Rhian Cooke, 2018

Soft Body Goal, Jaakko Pallasvuo, 2017

Nobody’s Child
Sat, 6 July, 5.15pm at Pavilion

Two early films by Yorkshire filmmaker Janey Walklin open up a discussion around social care structures. In So to Speak, Walklin talks with a number of people struggling with loneliness who find solace and community in Leeds’s Ashwood Day Centre. Women’s Refuge examines how Leeds Women’s Aid helps women who have been affected by domestic violence and sexual assault.

Like Walklin’s films, Viktoras Starosas’s documentary is a patient and tender examination of a school for orphaned and abused children, which focuses as much on the carers working as it does on the children. Finally, Carolyn Lazard’s creative documentary shows how the framework of the United States health system is stacked against disabled people, forcing them to expend superhuman levels of strength to secure the care they need.

Post-screening discussion with Janey Walklin and Joe Goff.

Films
So to Speak
Janey Walklin, 1981, UK, 14 mins, 16mm

I Love the Headmistress
Viktoras Starosas, 1978, Lithuania, 29 mins, digital

Get Well Soon
Carolyn Lazard, 2015, USA, 13 mins, digital

Meet the 4 Year Olds
Joe Goff, 2018, UK, 3 mins, digital

Women’s Refuge
Janey Walklin, 1980, UK, 20 mins, digital

Location
Pavilion
42 New Briggate
Leeds
LS1 6NU

Tickets
Free. Booking essential (Pavilion is a small venue)
Book now

Viktoras Starosas, I Love the Headmistress, 1978

I Love the Headmistress, Viktoras Starosas, 1978

Women’s Refuge, Janey Walklin, 1980

So to Speak, Janey Walklin, 1981

It’s Only a Paper Moon
Sat, 6 July, 8.15pm at Pavilion

The world is full of stuffed bears, plastic tubs and princess dresses all in rainbow colors. Images whizz past, animals make the wrong sounds and a man drives a pick-up truck straight into a metal compactor. The first half of this program was put together based on rhythm (((WHOOSH!, whirllllllll, thud, smaACK!))) while the second follows on from ideas arising in Azevedo, Charnley & Clout’s Value.

What is the value, or worth, or utility of any thing, any specific object? _GALORE takes us into an Indian market, Fresh Kill charts the dying moments of Gordon Matta-Clark’s vehicle, while Monika Uchiyama’s video takes a sustained look at the creation of a mysterious object.

Post-screening discussion with Amelia Crouch, Clare Charnley and Geoff Clout.

Films
Explorer
Pramod Pati, 1961,India, 6 mins, digital

Attention is Rarely Directed to the Space Between the Leaves
Amelia Crouch, 2016, UK, 6 mins, digital

Value
Patricia Azevedo, Clare Charnley & Geoff Clout, 2019, UK, 7 mins, digital

_GALORE
Bernd Lützeler, 2018, India/Germany, 8 mins, digital

Fresh Kill
Gordon Matta-Clark, 1972, US, 13 mins, 16mm

a new use
Monika Uchiyama, 2018, USA/Japan, 24 mins, digital

Additional titles to be confirmed.

Location
Pavilion
42 New Briggate
Leeds
LS1 6NU

Tickets
Free. Booking essential (Pavilion is a small venue)
Book now

Value, Patricia Azevedo, Clare Charnley & Geoff Clout, 2019

a new use, Monika Uchiyama, 2018

Attention Is Rarely Directed to the Space Between the Leaves, Amelia Crouch, 2016

Designer Collection
Sun, 7 July, 1pm at Hyde Park Picture House

What is a collection, a library, an institution? This programme moves from high (the Bibliothèque nationale de France and International Arts Center José de Guimarães) to low (a fetish website and, well, a video with the words ‘anal masturbation’ in the title).

Resnais shows the inner workings of the French national library, Caló & Queimadela reveal artifacts and photocopies from a unique Portuguese museum and a short work from a forgotten Yorkshire artist from the 1970s resurfaces thanks to an ardent archivist.

Kohei Ando’s short, romantic film looks at his various humble collections, while Harlan Whittingham’s kinky video questions what constitutes an archive. Steve Reinke closes the program with a provocative act that questions the nature of the art object and creative process.

Post-screening discussion with archivist Alex Wilson and Harlan Whittingham.

Films
Toute le mémoire du monde
Alain Resnais, 1956, France, 21 mins, Digital

Luminous Shadow
Mariana Caló & Francisco Queimadela, 2018, Portugal, 22 mins, digital

Single Frame
Steve Nall, ca. 1970s, UK, 3 mins, digital

My Collections
Kohei Ando, 1989, Japan, 9 mins, 16mm

Collectionneur
Harlan Whittingham, 2019, UK, 7 mins, digital

Anal Masturbation and Object Loss
Steve Reinke, 2002, USA, 6 mins, digital

Location
Hyde Park Picture House
73 Brudenell Rd
Leeds
LS6 1JD

Tickets
Free. Booking essential
Book now

Toute le memoire du monde, Alain Resnais, 1956

Toute le mémoire du monde, Alain Resnais, 1956

Collectionneur, Harlan Whittingham, 2019

Luminous Shadow, Mariana Caló & Francisco Queimadela, 2018

Sail the Summer Winds
Sun, 7 July, 3.30pm at Hyde Park Picture House

Alf Bower’s A Mysterious Devotion evidences several decades of wildly creative and experimental filmmaking in Yorkshire.

The ambitious 16mm cinemascope film is an oblique narrative following several members of a family as they experience and process a traumatic death. There is no dialogue but the camera stalks its actors around the house and at the seaside, at times claustrophobically close and others in wide shots at the sea. The black and white, proto-gothic imagery is rendered with painterly beauty, as reminiscent of iconoclastic Dutch filmmakers like Frans Zwartjes and Adriaan Ditvoorst as the experimental arthouse of Japan’s Art Theatre Guild.

In its first screening in several decades, A Mysterious Devotion will be complemented by two equally distinctive films by Shūji Terayama and Dore O, both of which similarly eschew dialogue and compose visually potent scenes of actors at the sea.

Post-screening discussion with Alf Bower.

Films
A Mysterious Devotion
Alf Bower, 1973, UK, 47 mins, digital

The Eraser
Shuji Terayama, 1977, Japan, 20 mins, 16mm

Alaska
Dore O, 1969, Germany, 17 mins, 16mm

Location
Hyde Park Picture House
73 Brudenell Rd
Leeds
LS6 1JD

Tickets
Free. Booking essential
Book now

A Mysterious Devotion, Alf Bower, 1973

Dore O, Alaska, 1969 Alaska, Dore O, 1969

Shuji Terayama, The Eraser, 1977 The Eraser, Shuji Terayama, 1977

Counterspy
Sun, 7 July, 7.30pm at Pavilion

Spy vs. Counterspy. Vanalyne Green infiltrates the virile sanctuary of Major League Baseball, Geraldine Snell’s obsessive infatuation is fed with online private messaging, while Hito Steyerl has archive fever looking for long-lost and publicly available erotic images of herself.

Each artist determines her own terms of engagement with desire and sexuality, while Anja Czioska’s film flouts essayistic discourse to locate an erotic-adjacent sense of playfulness through music, dance and fashion.

Post-screening discussion with Geraldine Snell and Vanalyne Green.

Films
Overlove 1
Geraldine Snell, 2018, UK, 8 mins, digital

A Spy in the House That Ruth Built
Vanalyne Green, 1990, USA, 30 mins, digital

Lovely Andrea
Hito Steyerl, 2007, Germany, 30’, digital

One Pussy Show
Anja Czioska, 1998, Germany, 6’, 16mm

Location
Pavilion
42 New Briggate
Leeds
LS1 6NU

Tickets
Free. Booking essential (Pavilion is a small venue)
Book now

Overlove 1, Geraldine Snell, 2018

A Spy in the House That Ruth Built, Vanalyne Green, 1990

Lovely Andrea Hito Steyerl, 2007 Lovely Andrea, Hito Steyerl, 2007