Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.20.1601312236250.8824@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: netbehaviour@netbehaviour.org
Subject: London show: The Inoperative Community
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2016 22:42:45 -0500 (EST)
Hi - I want to recommend the gallery show, The Inoperative Community, in London; it's remarkable. I know some of the people involved in it, as well as some of the work, and I think it's very relevant to Netbehaviour; it resonates well with the We Are Not Alone exhibition, for example. Do check it out if you have the opportunity; it closes 2/14/16. Thanks greatly, Alan Raven Row 56 Artillery Lane London E1 7LS T +44 (0)20 7377 4300 info@ravenrow.org Wednesday to Sunday 11am7pm The Inoperative Community 3 December 2015 - 14 February 2016 Serge Bard, Eric Baudelaire, Ericka Beckman, Cinema Action, Patrick Deval, Lav Diaz, Mati Diop, Stephen Dwoskin, Luke Fowler, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Johan Grimonprez, Marc Karlin, Stuart Marshall, Anne-Marie Miville, Pere Portabella, Yvonne Rainer, Jackie Raynal, Anne Charlotte Robertson, Helke Sander, Jon Sanders, James Scott, Albert Serra, Leslie Thornton, Humphry Trevelyan Curated by Dan Kidner The Inoperative Community is an exhibition of experimental narrative film and video that address ideas of community and the shifting nature of social relations. It draws on work made since 1968 for cinema, television and the gallery, reflecting the overlapping and entangled histories of these sites. The exhibitions title is borrowed from Jean-Luc Nancys 1983 essay of the same name, and while this connection did not determine the selection of works, they all bear witness in their own way to what Nancy characterised as the dissolution, the dislocation, or the conflagration of community. Many concern the limits of political activism and the fate of left political subcultures, and all use narrative as a means to explore social and political issues. Encompassing over fifty hours of material the exhibition can be navigated by means of a printed or downloadable programme. Each visitor will only be able to see a fraction of the works on offer, but connections can be made between works on any particular course through the exhibition, which has been designed to accommodate both prolonged viewing and shorter visits. A screening room will show five daily programmes, in a more structured approach to the exhibitions historical and political framework. These begin with an Anglo-French focus before expanding to include international filmmakers reflecting on the radical political movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition focuses on a period that could be described as the long 1970s (1968-84) all the works were either made during this time, or reflect on the radical social and political movements of the era. The defiant video installation about the Aids crisis, Journal of the Plague Year (1984) by Stuart Marshall (194993, UK) has been specially restored for the exhibition. Also included is a new edit within an installation designed for the exhibition of Peggy and Fred in Hell (19842015) by Leslie Thornton (b. 1951, USA), featuring footage shot whilst in residence at Raven Row; and newly available reels from the epic Five Year Diary (198197) by Anne Charlotte Robertson (19492012, USA), preserved by the Harvard Film Archive, will be screened for the first time in the UK. Extended gallery opening hours: 11am-7pm, Wednesday to Sunday ----------- Artupdate Home Raven Row The Inoperative Community at Raven Row: 3 December 2015 14 February... The Inoperative Community at Raven Row: 3 December 2015 14 February 2016 Raven Row 5 November 2015 Leslie Thornton, Peggy and Fred in Hell- Folding (1985-2015). Still from digital video (originated on 16mm film), 95 mins. Courtesy of the artist. Raven Row, London: 3 December 2015 14 February 2016 Opening: Wednesday 2 December, 6-9pm (Extended gallery hours Wed-Sun 11-7) Download exhibition programme PDF (57kb) The Inoperative Community Serge Bard, Eric Baudelaire, Ericka Beckman, Cinema Action, Patrick Deval, Lav Diaz, Mati Diop, Stephen Dwoskin, Luke Fowler, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Johan Grimonprez, Marc Karlin, Stuart Marshall, Anne-Marie Miville, Pere Portabella, Yvonne Rainer, Jackie Raynal, Anne Charlotte Robertson, Helke Sander, Jon Sanders, James Scott, Albert Serra, Leslie Thornton, Humphry Trevelyan. Curated by London-based writer and curator Dan Kidner, The Inoperative Community is an exhibition of experimental narrative film and video that broadly address crises of sociality and community. It draws on works made since 1968 for cinema, television and the gallery, with subjects that range from the construction of memory to game theory, and artificial intelligence. The exhibitions title is borrowed from Jean-Luc Nancys 1986 essay of the same name, and while this connection did not determine the selection of works, they all bear witness in their own way to Nancys characterisation of the dissolution, the dislocation, or the conflagration of community. Many concern the limits of political activism and failures of the revolutionary politics of the late 1960s. Research for the exhibition began by finding means to reconstruct Journal of the Plague Year (1984), the defiant installation about the Aids crisis by Stuart Marshall (194993, UK). Other significant presentations include a new edit within an installation designed for the exhibition of the thirty-year project Peggy and Fred in Hell (19842015) by Leslie Thornton (b. 1951, USA), featuring footage shot on a residency at Raven Row; while newly available reels from the epic Five Year Diary (198197) by Anne Charlotte Robertson (19492012, USA), preserved by the Harvard Film Archive, will be screened for the first time in the UK. The exhibition itself constituting a kind of inoperative community attempts to reframe discussions about the overlapping and entangled histories of art, cinema and television. Visitors will be invited to select from over fifty hours of material. Comfortable seating has been designed to enable prolonged viewing as well as shorter visits, while, in the manner of a film festival, all starting times will be indicated. Alongside the galleries, a purpose-built screening room will show five daily programmes, each a point of departure for thinking about experimental film.