Operation Rewrite Exhibition in Dublin

Here's the official announcement:

‘Operation Rewrite’
Esperanza Collado & Maximilian Le Cain
Instituto Cervantes
29 September – 29 October 2011

Opening & artists' talk: Thursday 29 September 2011, 6pm.

Esperanza Collado and Maximilian Le Cain explore the workings of the cut and the interruption as fundamental associative principles of cinematographic montage in a diversity of artworks. ‘Operation Rewrite’s multidisciplinary nature allows it to trace the fault lines between cinema and the inevitably ruptured articulation of language. This rhizomatic art project takes its name from a chapter of William S. Burroughs’ novel ‘Nova Express’, where the author describes his subversive ‘Cut-Up’ method, the aim of which is to explode the disaffecting ‘parasite organism’ commonly known as language. In ‘Operation Rewrite’, the wide use of black screen and of spaces ‘in negative’ (not in the sense of negation, but of inversion, crack or leak) become machines of affection, places for expropriation and the radical displacement of meaning.

This exhibition has been made possible by the support of MUSAC (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y Léon) and Cork Film Centre.

www.dublin.cervantes.es

Alan Lambert Film Project on Fundit

Alan Lambert, responsible for the criminally under-recognised masterpiece Ouroboros which I wrote about here, is seeking funding for an exciting looking new film project with the beautiful title The End of the Earth is My Home. To find out more or to make a contribution to this very worthwhile campaign, check out his Fundit profile:

http://www.fundit.ie/project/the-end-of-the-earth-is-my-home

Operation Rewrite Exhibition Stills

Here are some photos Esperanza Collado took of our Operation Rewrite exhibition in Spain last week...

Culture Night

Tomorrow, Friday 23rd, is Cork's Culture Night and what I'm looking forward to most is Vicky Langan's performance at The National Sculpture Factory, which will be open between 5 and 9pm. Having heard some of the sound that will be used, I can safely say on the basis of that alone that this is not to be missed!

If anyone's around later and feeling like some experimental cinema, a 'surprise' screening of my The Everywhere Trilogy will close festivities at Civic Trust House on Pope's Quay. That'll be at 10 or just after...

LULLABY

Lullaby, the latest video by Vicky Langan and me, is now complete. This 20-minute, black and white plunge into noctrunal solitude makes more elaborated use of flicker than anything I've done previously, seeking the stillness at the heart of the visual storm...

Operation Rewrite Exhibition in Spain

The first of two upcoming exhibitions stemming from Esperanza Collado and my Operation Rewrite project will be taking place later this week at the a.a. LEVE arts space in Castro de Cepeda, León.

The opening is on Friday, September 16th at 8pm and the show will run until October 16th. To book a viewing, +34 987 053 862

This will be followed up by an exhibition at the Instituto Cervantes in Dublin, kicking off on September 29th. But more about that soon...

THE LAST FILMS OF HUMPHREY ESTERHASE

As reported here last year, the mysterious and enigmatic legend of underground cinema Humphrey Esterhase was finally intending to start making films again. Having given up filmmaking for nearly forty years after all his films were destroyed, he worked with me on Ten Minutes Isn't worth a Dream, after which he planned to make several films of his own. Unfortunately this never happened. He seemed to sink into dejection and indecisiveness. At the time of his death, it was believed he hadn't even touched a camera recently. But two rolls of Super-8 were found amongst his possessions, as was an audio tape on which he had recorded some of his thoughts. Close Watch has set these Super-8 images to the soundtrack of this recording as The Last Films of Humphrey Esterhase, a tribute to this bizarre and tormented figure.

George Kuchar 1942 - 2011

The sense of freedom his films give me is second to none. A huge influence...

Eclipse of the Sun Virgin (1967) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_soO-tEsiOU

(PR)EVENS in Amsterdam

(Pr)Evens, a short documentary on Ian Mackaye that I made with Tim Furey back in 2006, is to be screened in Amsterdam on the 20th, along with Jem Cohen's Instrument.

This is part of an event by artist Jeremiah Day centring on Hannah Arendt:

Hannah Arendt’s The Crisis in Culture: Its Social and Its Political Significance
September 20th, 24th
GOLEB
Burg. De Vlugtlaan 125
Organized by Jeremiah Day

Tuesday, September 20th
Introduction of Arendt project by Jeremiah Day 19:00
Film Screening 20:00
Instrument, Dir. Jem Cohen, 1999
(Pr)Evens, Dir. Maximilian Le Cain & Tim Furey, 2006

As both the launch of GOLEB's fall film series and the introduction to Day's Arendt project, this evening will present two documentaries about Dischord Records, the home of musical groups such as Fugazi and Minor Threat. Following Arendt's focus on the distinction between culture and entertainment, we will consider the way Dischord Records' founder Ian Mackaye has tried to organize a practice in which music is not reduced to consumption, and as an example of the engagement of art with public life. Also discussed will be the 2005 Cork Caucus, an international forum of artists and thinkers, of which (Pr)Evens was one of the legacies.

For more information, contact: golebreadinggroup@hotmail.com

My First Film

After seventeen years of making videos (including quite a few featuring or entirely comprised of film elements), I've finally completed my first film!

Dark, Plastic, Reversal is a ten-minute strip of Super-8 constructed of two-second sections of black leader interspersed with one-sceond bursts of image fragments. This resolutely materialist work is accompanied by a soundtrack of noise recorded and played back on audio tape. It will not be transferred to any digital format.

Watch this space for details of future screenings...