Women dance and wave in a spiritual dance in Apariciones/Apparitions by Carolina Caycedo, one of the films in Art Basel 2019 Film program. Image: artist and Commonwealth and Council

ART FAIR

Films about art and artists are at the center of the Art Basel 2019 film program

BY KAZAD

BASEL, SWITZERLAND -When Art Basel 2019 opens on June 13, art lovers will get a great opportunity to see works by emerging and established artists. This year as with other years, many galleries will be displaying artworks by artists they manage. There are many events that art lovers can attend and experience during the 2019 Art Basel in Basel.  Beyond popular events like exhibitions. art talks, and theatre, however, one important program guests to the annual art fair cannot ignore is the Art Basel 2019 Film Program

For Art Basel 2019, Maxa Zoller and Marian Masone will be presenting films about art and artists that are both political and insightful. The main objective of the two curators for the Art Basel 2019 Film Program is to create cross-global dialogue and the appreciation of movies focused on art and artists. They strive to create “a diverse and challenging program of works that reflects on the complex role of media in today’s global world.” 

The screening of the films will begin on June 10, 2019.  Will all the Art Basel events are designed to ensure maximum art experience for guests, this year’s film program opens up a new unique experience to understand art and artists through films. 

Cao Fei, Prison Architect, 2018, 59′, Vitamin Creative Space. Monday, June 10, 2019, 8. 30 pm

The first film for the Art Basel 2019 film program is the Prison Architect by Cao Fei.  The film investigates and questions the societal notions of the relationship between freedom and captivity. What does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be tasked with the responsibility for creating a place where people are incarcerated?

In the film, a Chinese political prisoner in British colonial-era Hong Kong and a modern-day architect struggle with her commission to transform a centre for art and culture into a prison. In what can be described as a dialogue across space and time.

It is impossible to over the colonial history inherent in the film. The setting for the film is the Tai Kwun, the Centre for Heritage and Arts in Hong Kong. Although now a center for contemporary art, Tai Kwun occupies the former Victoria Prison, which was built under British colonial rule. In fact, the location served as the first and longest-running prison complex. In Prison Architect, Cao Fei reverses history in a way that the architect is tasked with turning an arts institution. Commissioned by Tai Kwun, the film creates a complex narrative and dialogue that stirs up emotions about how people live with the idea of the imprisonment of fellow human beings.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Hu Fang and Maxa Zoller.

Paul Grivas, Film Catastrophe, 2018, 55. Tuesday, June 11, 2019, 7 pm

Another film art lovers will find very engaging during the Art Basel 2019 Film Program is Film Catastrophe by Paul Grivas. For more than a decade, Paul Grivas has been preoccupied with disasters, especially at sea. It all began in 2010 with Film Socialisme, a film in which Jean-Luc Godard explores the shipwreck of political ideals in Europe. At the center of the film is the Costa Concordia. The cruise liner, which served as an allegoric platform to Godard, sank off the coast of Tuscany in 2012, before the cameras of passengers and the entire world. Thirty-two people were killed.

Paul Grivas was particularly fascinated by the Jean-Luc Godard film that he decided to create a film that opens up a dialogue about the making of a film.  Film Catastrophe is a revaluation and examination of Film Socialisme and the Costa Concordia disaster. In the film, Paul Grivas revisits the events by combining on-set footage of the Godard film and footage captured by passengers on the Concordia as it ran aground. An innovative documentary, director Paul Grivas brings to the fore Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking creative approach to filmmaking but also a pointed political critique of the Western world.

Rashid Johnson, Native Son, 2019, 110′, Hauser & Wirth. Tuesday, June 11, 2019, 9 pm

Native Son is a tragic story of Shakespearean proportion. Based on the seminal novel by Richard Wright, the film tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a young African American living in Chicago. From a struggling family and background, Bigger gets an opportunity to work as a chauffeur for the affluent businessman Will Dalton. Bigger’s job becomes a window to new experiences and relationships.  In addition to entering a seductive new world of money and power, Bigger also forms a precarious relationship with Dalton’s beautiful, captivating daughter Mary.  His exposure to wealth and relationship leads down a rabbit hole filled with twist and turns. To get some air from a drowning situation, Bigger makes decisions that alter the course of his life forever.

Fiona Tan, Ascent, 2016, 80′, Peter Freeman, Inc., Frith Street Gallery. Thursday, June 13, 2019, 7 pm

Fiona Tan’s Ascent borrows from photo-film, a long tradition within the artistic practice that explores a single image to tell a story.   The process involves animating single images using sound and narration, to create meditative and dreamlike cinematic experiences. In Ascent, Fiona Tan uses this form of storytelling to pay homage to the Japanese Mount Fuji. Composed of 4000 individual photographs taken over 150 years, the film glorifies the colossal mountain as it affected by weather and other elements through the years.  With this monumental series of images, Tan evokes the culture of memory of one of the world’s most mystical destinations.

A Q&A will follow the screening with Fiona Tan and Maxa Zoller.

Prune Nourry, Serendipity, 2019, 74′, Templon. Thursday, June 13, 2019, 9 pm

What happens when a woman gets a breast cancer diagnosis? In Serendipity, Prune Nourry takes viewers through how such a diagnosis can affect every aspect of your life.  For many years, the French-born, New York-based artist has spent the majority of her artistic career creating work that deals with women’s bodies and female fertility. A recent breast cancer diagnosis did not totally change Nourry’s idea of using her body as the site of inscription. Instead, it engendered a new story of how an ailment like breast cancer diagnosis can reshape a woman’s total being. In Serendipity Nourry captures the subsequent evolution of her body, her work, her soul, and her mind. Although it began as a book project, it ended as a film. 

A Q&A with Prune Nourry and Marian Masone will follow the screening.

Marxism Reloaded: Double Feature. Friday, June 14, 2019, 9 pm

The present political crisis around the globe is momentous. The political turmoil has generated intense debate as people search for alternative social systems. Should we embrace capitalism, communism or socialism? In a double feature titled Marxism Reloaded, films by Phil Collins and Sven Johne examine the theme of Marxism from two very different perspectives. In Ceremony, Phil, a Turner prize nominee, pays tribute to Friedrich Engels, co-author of the Communist Manifesto, in the context of Brexit and the contemporary British working class, and 100 years after the Russian Revolution. On his part, Sven takes up a continental European position and proposes a completely new political future in Lieber Wladimir Putin / Dear Vladimir Putin.

• Sven Johne, Lieber Wladimir Putin / Dear Vladimir Putin, 2017, 17’39”, Klemm’s
• Phil Collins, Ceremony, 2017, 67′, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

A Q&A will follow the screening with Sven Johne and Maxa Zoller.

Jeffrey Perkins, George, The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus, 123′, 2018. Saturday, June 15, 2019, 8 pm

Lithuanian American artist, graphic designer, architect and impresario George Maciunas is the focus of the documentary George – The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus. In 1961, George established the avant-garde art movement Fluxus, an international association of artists working in varied disciplines. This is a thought-provoking film that delves into the life of the artist, examining his artistic career.  In addition to presenting the life of the artist in glaring terms, the film also raises questions about topical issues relevant to artists working today:

How do art and artists define relationships to political ideologies, capital exchange, communication technologies, globalism, collectivity, and community? In addition, how do these relationships function in a constant state of ‘flux’? While artists working in today’s environment are conversant with these issues, they bring attention to issues artists are grappling with in their daily lives. The discussion includes interviews with many notable artists connected to the Fluxus genesis, including Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Jonas Mekas, and many others.

Short Film Program

Patriarchy is an integral part of art history. For many years, the focus of art was masculine as it privileged male artists over female artists. Besides excluding women from exhibitions, certain theories were male-centric. The term ‘individual mythologies’ coined by Harald Szeemann in the 1960s, was mainly in reference to the male-dominated conceptual art of the time. The ‘Collective Mythologies’ contest the notion that only men have the capacity to be innovative.

Collective Mythologies . Wednesday, June 12, 2019, 9 pm

Collective Mythologies is a short film program focusing on how a handful of contemporary female artists envision mythologies: as a collective artistic ritual grounded in group dynamics, that transmits the knowledge of previous generations through the body. The films include:

• Carolina Caycedo, Apariciones/Apparitions, 2018, 9’10”, Commonwealth and Council
• Christine Rebet, Thunderbird, 2018, 5′, Bureau
• Cauleen Smith, Sojourner, 2018, 20’02”, Kate Werble Gallery
• Rebecca Horn, Kopf-Extension, 1973, 3’25”; Einhorn, 1973, 3’11”; Kakadu-Maske, 1973, 2′ Sean Kelly

Destroy, he said’ Friday, June 14, 2019, 7 pm

What happens when males encounter a silent adversary: sculpture?  Ask Eva Rothschild whose film Boys and Sculpture will be part of the Short Film Program. In the film, several boys encounter the artist’s sculpture and the result is disastrous. Boys and Sculpture is just one of the six short films in the Short Film Program. They reflect the violence of our times on a playful, artistic level. When males confront sculpture, the confrontation is (nearly) always fatal. ‘Destroy, he said’. The short films include:

• Eva Rothschild, Boys and Sculpture, 2012, 25′, Modern Art, 303 Gallery, kaufmann repetto, The Modern Institute, Eva Presenhuber
• François Curlet, Air Graham, 2005-18, 11′, Air de Paris
• Hank Willis Thomas and Kambui Olujimi, Winter in America, 2005, 5′, Jack Shainman Gallery
• Michael Rakowitz, The Ballad of Special Ops Cody and other stories, 14’42”, 2017, Barbara Wien

The screening will be followed by a talk with Kambui Olujimi and Maxa Zoller

Art Basel Switzerland begins June 13 and runs through the June 16. The Art Basel 2019 Film Program is already generating some attention because of the list of films put together by this year’s curator. Art Basel tickets for the Film Program are already on sale.

Are you going to Art Basel 2019? Share your experience of the Art Basel 2019 Film Program.