“[…] The total structure of meaning of an individual film can be regarded as a form of connotation. Each individual film is a creation of meaning(s) insofar as the application of different filmic codes brings into being a form that is new and not just a stereotype of a form that has been used before. […] A filmic work of art is the creation of a new system of signs, a sort of individual super-code or a structure of meanings in which every partial expression derives its meaning from its place within the whole system.”
(Excerpt from Jan M. Peters, Pictorial Signs and the Language of Film, Amsterdam, 1981)
How does one create a theory of moving image through moving image? How does one trace the invisible boundaries between the production, the representation and the fruition of films?
Presenting a programme of video screenings might just replicate their functioning and influences, but could also refresh the basics and intent of a cinematic work.
The Filmic Conventions are the fluid rules in the cinematic vocabulary that help the viewer in structuring the laws applied to the consuming and dispersal of video-works and films. At the core of the project stands the attempt to create a plausible and yet subjective ‘theory of moving image’ through the practical reinterpretation of codes by a series of selected video-works from international artists.
For almost 2 months FormContent will become a cinema where, following the dictate of a series of rules (narrative code, code of the camera movement, directing code, figurative code, code of the verbal and musical expression), weekly screenings will unveil the artists’ different interpretation of these possible filmic standards.
Parallel to the exhibition in our East London space, The Filimic Conventions will be presented at Zoo 2009 from 16 until 19 October. We will use this opportunity to present The Filmic Conventions as a choral video-installation that will offer the viewer a glimpse of all the layers of this sujective theory of moving image.
Directing Code - 2-4 October
Lois Rowe, Argument for Design, 2006, 4’ 30”
Sefer Memişoğlu, Rendering Rome, 2008, 6’
Meris Angioletti, Aussicht, 2007, 4’ 51”
Dan Shaw-Town & Tim Winter, At the edge of the world his journey begins, an objects search for autonomy in a world full of things, 2008, 10’
Figuration code - 9-11 and 16-18 October
Laurent Montaron, Readings, 2005, 13’ 44”
Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Der Schlamm von Branst, 2008, 20’
Salvatore Arancio, Sentinel, 2008, 10’
Verbal / musical expression - 23-25 October
Laure Prouvost, Burrow me / Pig, 2009, 15’
Jason Underhill, Howlin’, 2009, 30’
Thomas Lock, Body Dysfunctional, 2009, 35 mm on video, 15’
Narrative Code - 30 October - 1 November and 6-8 November
Kathrin Sonntag, Dracula’s Ghost, 2009, 21’ 22”
Gabriel Lester, All Wrong, 2005, 22’
Gintaras Makarevicius, Testament of Sibiria, 2008, 14’
Beatrice Gibson, A Necessary Music, 2008, 28’
Camera Action - 13-15 November
Alexandra Navratil, A Fraction of a Second Earlier, 2009, 2‘43”
Filipa César, Allee der Kosmonauten, 2007, 16 mm on video, 8’
Peter Downsbrough, ET/C , 2004 (selected by Anne-Sophie Dinant)
Elodie Pong, The Last Supper , 2007 (selected by Anne-Sophie Dinant)
David Crosswaite, Man with a movie camera , 1973 (selected by Mike Sperlinger)
Screening Programmes by James Richards
20 -22 November 2009
Photography Is Easy
Friday- Saturday 3 pm/ Sunday from 6 pm
Leslie Thornton
Sahara/Mojave, 2006, 12 min, color, sound
Strange Space, 1992, 3:46 min, color, sound
Photography is Easy, 2006, 4:30 min, color, sound
The Last Time I Saw Ron, 1994, 12 min, color and b&w, sound
Novel City, 2008, 7 min, color, sound
Mouth Room
Saturday 5pm / Sunday from 6 pm
Duncan Campbell, O Joan, No…, 2006, 12 mins
Kim Fielding, Photoshoot Tape 1 (James Richards re-edit), 2006, 2 mins
Stuart Marshall, Mouth Room, 1976, 6 mins
Anne McGuire, The Waltons, 1996, 7 mins
Michael Curran, Amami Se Vuoi, 1994, 5 mins
Anne McGuire, Joe Dimaggio 1,2,3, 1991, 11 mins
John Smith, OM , 16mm/video, 1986, 4 mins
Stuart Marshall, Arcanum, 1975, 7 mins
James Richards, Nils Bech Performing Can’t Live If Living Is Without You, 2006, 3 mins
After School Special
Friday 5pm / Sunday from 6pm
C-100 FILM CORPORATION /DIRECT EFFECT PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS USA , 1990-1992, 30mins, video
Corin Sworn, After School Special, 2009, 20min video
John Smith, Blight, 1994-96, 14mins video/film
