DRAWN TO LIFE // reanimating the animate

From: Stoffel Debuysere (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Nov 13 2008 - 05:36:12 PST


Hi all,
for those of you who happen to be in Brussels in a few weeks...

cheerio,
Stoffel

DRAWN TO LIFE
reanimating the animate

Maison des Cultures Saint-Gilles, Brussels. 25 & 27 November 2008. FREE
Film and video program in the context of ‘SE JETER À L’EAU’, an
event organised by Atelier Graphoui.
Curated by Stoffel Debuysere and María Palacios Cruz, in cooperation
with Courtisane.

“animate … v.t…. [< L. animatus, pp. of animare, to make alive,
fill with breath < anima, air, soul]. l. to give life to; bring to
life. 2. to make gay, energetic, or spirited. 3. to inspire. 4. to
give motion to; put into action: as, the breeze animated the leaves."

We all know: animation is a form of cinema. And yet, one could argue
that all cinema is in fact animation, and furthermore that life
itself – anima – can be understood as cinema. Our existence,
inscribed in perception, imagination and memory, is constantly
animated, deformed, edited. The question is whether and how we can
ourselves give form to our own experiences. Certainly, the incessant
flow of images in which our daily lives are submerged seems to leave
little room for analysis and intervention. Its intention is that of
synthesis, of a continuous illusion of life. The world is thus
objectivized, but inevitably doubled, devoid of its soul,
“deanimated”. The artists and filmmakers in this program attempt
to revitalize perception, offering an alternative or counterweight to
the ways in which technological interfaces determine our relation to
the world. At the crossroads between cinematographic codes and
genres, these films and videos seek to dismantle the common a priori
assumptions on animation film and its limitations. Fragments of
collective and individual memories are redrawn, with pencils and
pixels, light, movement and (algo)rhythms, in search of new possible
relations between world and representation, image and subject, dream
and data, the aesthetical and the political. Animation as re-animation.

With works by Stephen Andrews, Robert Breer, Persijn Broersen &
Margit Lukács, Sky David, Dirk de Bruyn, Kota Ezawa, Paul Glabicki,
Stuart Hilton, Jonathan Hodgson, Ken Jacobs, Cathy Joritz, Jonathon
Kirk, LEV, Frank & Caroline Mouris, Dietmar Offenhuber, Jenny Perlin,
Josh Raskin, Bob Sabiston, Carolee Schneemann and Karl Tebbe.

PROGRAM 1
Tuesday 25.11.2008 20:00

“We know that behind every image revealed there is another image
more faithful to reality, and in the back of that image there is
another, and yet another behind the last one, and so on, up to the
true image of that absolute, mysterious reality that no one will ever
see.”
– Michelangelo Antonioni

Robert Breer
Fuji
US, 1974, 16mm, colour, sound, 10′
Bang!
US, 1986, 16mm, color, sound, 10′

Dirk de Bruyn
Rote Movie
AUS, 1994, 16mm, colour, sound, 12′

Frank & Caroline Mouris
Frank Film
US, 1973, 16mm, colour, sound, 9′

Stuart Hilton
Six weeks in June
UK, 1998, video, b/w, sound, 6′

Bob Sabiston
Snack and Drink
US, 1999, video, colour, sound, 3′40

Josh Raskin
I met the Walrus
CA, 2007, video, colour, sound, 5′15

LEV (Levni R. Yilmaz Esq)
Tales Of Mere Existence (selection)
US, video, b/w, sound, 5′

Jonathan Hodgson
Night Club
UK, 1983, 16mm, colour, sound, 6′

Sky David
Field of Green: A Soldier’s Animated Sketchbook
US, 2007, 35mm to video, colour & b/w, sound, 8′

PROGRAM 2
Thursday 27.11.2008 20:00

“The worship of pattern, the one and only, at the expense of the
subject matter from which it comes. How do we rediscover it, and how
do we impart or describe it? The ultimate challenge of the future –
to see without looking: to defocus! In a world where the media kneel
before the altar of sharpness, draining life out of life in the
process, the DEFOCUSIST will be the communicators of our era –
nothing more, nothing less!”
– Lars von Trier

Kota Ezawa
The Simpson Verdict
GE/US, 2002, video, colour, sound, 3′

Jenny Perlin
Box Office
US, 2007, 16mm, b/w, silent, 2′25

Ken Jacobs
Capitalism : slavery
US, 2007, video, b/w, silent, 3′

Cathy Joritz
Negative Man
GE/US, 1985, 16 mm, b&w, sound, 2′ 30″
Give AIDS the Freeze
GE/US, 1991, 16mm, b/w, sound, 2′

Paul Glabicki
Diagram Film
US,1978, 16mm, colour, sound, 14′

Jonathon Kirk
I’ve got a guy running
US, 2006, video, b/w, sound, 7′12″

Dietmar Offenhuber
paths of g
AU, 2006, video, colour, sound, 1′

Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács
Prime Time Paradise
NL, 2004, video, colour, silent, 11′

Karl Tebbe
Infinite Justice
GE, 2006, video, colour, sound, 2′

Stephen Andrews
The Quick and the Dead
CA, 2004, video, color, sound, 1′30″

Carolee Schneemann
Viet Flakes
US, 1965, 16 mm film to video, bIw, sound, 7′

more info:
www.diagonalthoughts.com

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