|
|
|
|
MF ProgrammeEve Sussman (USA) – 2009 film “White on white” (world premiere)There was a popular entertainment in the XIXth century France - tableaux vivants. What does it mean? It's when the habitués of the salons made performances on allegorical subjects or in the spirit of the well-known canvases, chose the properties and wore the historical costumes. It was a lovely pastime for society at that times before radio or internet. Contemporary artists are free to do whatever they want, even to play in such games using computer technology and especially written music; getting the professional actors, camera and sound men, choreographers and light designers involved. So they can rehearse something very similar to "Las Meninas" by Velazquez, "The Sabine Women" by Jacques-Louis David or (and why not?) to the "White square" by Malevich.
American artist Eve Sussman gathered the very team (professionals from Rufus Corporation) for answering such vital questions as "What had been happening in Velazquez' "Las Meninas" before the royal couple Philip IV of Spain and his wife Mariana were reflected in the mirror and the ray of light fell on the forehead of the infanta Margarita? And what if the court dwarf had suddenly tickled a huge dog in the forefront? And what will happen right after the director-artist says "Cut!", and the magic of the frozen pictorial moment will vanish?" To satisfy her curiosity Eve Sussman made a ringed 12-minute film "89 Seconds at Alcázar" dedicated to the picture from Prado. This work will be shown as a part of the X Media Forum (in the "Aptekarsky Prikaz", on the territory of the Architecture museum named after A.V.Sh'usev. The idle viewer, unable to keep his eye on the motionless masterpiece, will, in the end, have an opportunity to concentrate his attention on the action, which is slow, leisured and tantalizing - absolutely non-cinematographic. Artist's goal lied not in the creation of the film with a plot, but in the "animation" of the picture.
The action in the second teamwork of Eve Sussman and Rufus Corporation moves from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin through Tempelhof airport, meat market in Athens and the modernist villa. It has been already shown in Moscow, at the 2007 year Media Forum. The Rape of the Sabine Women is a reconstruction of the Jacques-Louis David picture in the 1960-s scenery, made to correspond to the formal structure of the opera in 5 acts. According to ancient sources which used the artists of all the epochs and styles, roman men abducted women from the neighbouring Sabine tribe. Insulted fathers began the war, but at the crucial point Sabine women bound themselves to their new husbands, and the battle was stopped. Eve Sussman borrowed the poetics of gestures and choreography from the neo-classical painting, and the themes of the power, desire and grief - from the ancient legend. As the myth demands, this story must end with the reconciliation of the quarrelling sides, but the artist turns it into the primordial chaos, accompanied by the singing of the 800 voices choir. The new project by Eve Sussman is still at work. Only the first episode is shot and edited so far: «White on White: The Pilot (just like being there)». It will be presented to the Moscow viewers and the guests of MIFF of this year.
The current task of the artist seems to be more complicated than in the previous works. The question is that "White on white", or "The White square" (from the New York MoMA collection), of the same name with the new project, was made when Malevich rejected narrativeness and figurativeness in art and stopped to represent "the things" altogether. Eve solved the problem of the suprematism and cinematograph intersection by the reference to the works of german avantgarde film director Hans Richter. In 1920-s he began to make a film about Malevich, but his work has never been accomplished. Sussman compares Malevich's declaration ("I am the chairman of space") with the idea of the journey into space and the image of Soviet Sputnik - "the most beautiful object in the history of humankind". The film is only a part of Eve Sussman's project, which includes photos, storyboards, essays, sculpture, series of documetaries and several installations. All the details of the project will be revealed during the artist lecture in the Contemporary culture centre "Garage". You will also have an opportunity to ask her directly...
|
MF Winners 2008 Organized by:
MediaFest |
|
|
|
|
