Kinomuseum
“Oberhausen continues its exploration of the future of cinema with a ten-part programme curated by Ian White that focuses on the relationship between cinema and the museum. The traditional gallery and cinema are inadequate vehicles for artists' film and video. The museum cannot assimilate works whose meaning is contingent upon the operations of cinema. Cinema cannot develop a sustainable infrastructure for artists' work. And yet the number of artists working with the moving image continues to rise. Kinomuseum examines and re-imagines the responses – and their cultural context – of both institutions to artists' work. Concerned not only with what we see but how we see it, the project proposes a radical alignment between viewing and critical thinking. Kinomuseum imagines a new museum rising from the foundations of the cinema auditorium.” – I.W., Oberhausen festival catalogue
White curated this extremely influential programme of screenings, events and podium discussions as the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival’s annual ‘special programme’. The events mixed artists’ films, both contemporary and historical, with archival materials and performances. The overall effect was a kind of essayistic reflection on the auditorium, the museum and the festival itself as contexts for artists’ moving image. The intimate, concentrated setting of the festival week in Oberhausen generated informal discussions in between the events themselves, many of which continued in different forms long after the festival itself.
White invited several other artists and curators including Achim Borchardt-Hume AA Bronson Mary Kelly, Mark Leckey and Emily Pethick to develop guest programmes. The project also later resulted in a book, published by Walther Koenig, with an expanded version of White’s catalogue text for the programme and more contextual material.
“Kinomuseum [2007] by Ian White was very important for many reasons. It was a critical point within the festival in terms of considering the festival’s role with regards to the art world and how to define its own role, also to take a critical position within the art world. It was also important because White had been linked intimately to the festival for many years already. He represented this development. White had the capacity and the ability to frame things in a specific way. It was just part of his character.” - Lars Henrik Gass, ‘Oberhausen: An interview with Lars Henrik Gass, European Journal Of Media Studies’, June 13, 2014
“The Kinomuseum as envisioned by the festival, however, unites the best of both worlds: cinema's broad public and free circulation of commodities with the museum's power to restore a film's mystic aura. The latter is guaranteed by the classic projection in the cinema itself which, considering its traditional dramaturgy of architectural prelude, slow dimming of the lights and secular consecration through the rising curtain, leaves every museum presentation far behind.” - Michael Kohler, film-dienst 12/2007, 7. Juni 2007
Programme details (Ian White programmes)
7 Guided Tours
Temple of Lethe, Pablo Bronstein, UK 2003, Super 8 on video, 3’
To Remember, Amar Kanwar, India 2003, video, 8’
Untitled, Megan Fraser, UK 2007, 35mm, 15’
Hôtel des Invalides, Georges Franju, France 1952, 16mm, 22’
A short video about Tate Modern, Emma Wolukau-Wanambwa, UK 2005, video, 5’
You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, Michael Robinson, US 2006, 16mm, 8’
The American Wing
The American Wing, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Office of Cinema Works, US 1935, silent 16mm on Beta SP/PAL, 45’
Digital Video Effect: “Editions”, Seth Price, US 2006, video, 12’
Skin Film 3, Emma Hart, UK 2006, 16mm, 11’
Screening Room
Part 1
A live talk by the American filmmaker Morgan Fisher followed by
Screening Room, Morgan Fisher, 1968/2007, 16mm, 6’
Part 2
Cleaning the Mirror I, Marina Abramovic, Yugoslavia 1995, video, 15’
Cleaning the Mirror II, Marina Abramovic, Yugoslavia 1995, video, 15’
Inner and Outer Space
Karta, XX Amˇziuje (Once in the XX Century), Deimantas Narkevicius, Lithuania 2004, Beta SP/PAL, 7’
The school service at the American Museum of Natural History, American Museum of Natural History, US 1927, silent, 16mm on Beta SP/PAL, 29’
Little Figures, Sarah Vanagt, Belgium 2003, Beta SP/PAL, 15’
A Study of Relationships Between Inner and Outer Space, David Lamelas, UK 1969, 16mm, 20’
Toute la Mémoire du Monde
Mounting Buffalo, American Museum of Natural History, US 1920, 16mm on Beta SP/PAL, 2’30’’
Art Herstory, Hermine Freed, US 1974, Beta SP/PAL, 22’
Toute La Mémoire du Monde, Alain Resnais, Fr 1956, 35mm, 21’
Thermoplastic, Chrissy Coscioni, US/UK 2006, 16mm on video & fluorescent strip, 10’
Marguerite Duras/Alain Resnais (0.65, 0.85, 1.0 fps), David Dempewolf, US 2007, DVCAM, 20’
Programme details: The Imaginary Museum (guest curated programmes)
Zeichentrick (curated and presented by Achim Borchardt-Hume)
Following the Right Hand of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, Pierre Bismuth, 2007, Blue and red marker on transparency film, 215x279 mm
Fallout (curated and presented by Mary Kelly)
Disaster, Sherry Millner with Ernie Larsen, US 1976, 2 screen Super 8 on DVD, 30’
Fast Trip, Long Drop, Greg Bordowitz, US 1993, Beta SP/PAL, 53’
not a matter of if but when: brief records of a time in which expectations were repeatedly raised and lowered and people grew exhausted from never knowing if the moment was at hand or was still to come, The Speculative Archive / Julia Meltzer and David Thorne with Rami Farah, US/Syria, 2006, DVD, 32’
CINEMA-in-the-ROUND (curated and presented by Mark Leckey)
A live presentation of a specially devised collection on cinema, sculpture and things that “come to life” on screen. (Leckey has subsequently presented versions of this performative talk in other places, see https://vimeo.com/73861892.)
SEX WORK: The museum as brothel; art house as porn house (curated and presented by AA Bronson)
This programme is dedicated to the memory of Jack Smith.
Le corps sous la peau est une usine surchauffée (The Body under the Skin Is a Superheated Factory), Henrik Olesen, Germany 2006, DVD, 31’30’’ [This work will be shown outside the auditorium before and after the programme]
Public Inconvenience, Fernando Arias, Columbia/United Kingdom 2004, DVD, 4’30’’
Mansfield 1962, William E. Jones, USA 2006, DVD, 9’
SUPERM HIGHWAY (“On a Highway I Drive Very Fast”), Brian Kenny & Slava Mogutin (SUPERM), USA 2006, DVD, 7’48’’
4'26", Terence KOH, USA, 2007, DVD, 5’2’’
Inside the Pavilion of Virginia Puff-Paint, Jeremy Laing and Will Munro, Canada 2004, DVD, 8’35’’
amailstripper4u: 4mike, 4gerald, 4dwight, Joseph Maida, USA 2006, DVD, 6’40’’
Dead Tech, Marriage (James Tsang and Math Bass), USA 2005, DVD, 3’33’’
One Night at André’s, Steve Reinke, Canada 2007, DVCAM, 1’30’’
A Bit of Matter and a Little Bit More, Lawrence Weiner, USA 1976, DVD, 23’
Quicky, Fernando Arias, Columbia/UK 2004, DVD, 1’30’’
Hall of Mirrors (curated and presented by Emily Pethick)
Performer/Audience/Mirror, Dan Graham, NL 1977, video, 18’
What do you look like? A crypto demonic mystery, Judith Hopf, NL 2007, video, 7’
A portrait of the artist as a worker (rmx.), Ina Wudtke, Ger,any 2006, video, 11’
Hell Frozen Over, Bernadette Corporation, US 2000, video, 19’22’’
Left Side Right Side, Joan Jonas, US 1974, video, 8’
The Uninvited - a documentary film, Judith Hopf, Katrin Pesch, Germany 2005, video, 15’
Basking in what feels like ‘an ocean of grace’, I soon realise that I’m not looking at it, but rather that I AM it, recognising myself, Emily Wardill, UK 2006, 16mm, 7’30’’
Podium discussions
6 May: Privatisation of film experience
Presenter: Olaf Möller
Participants: Matt Hanson, Oskar Neg, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Gertjan Zuilhof
7 May: Does the museum fail?
Presenter: Ian White
Participants: Chrissie Iles, Alexander Horwath, Marysia Lewandowska, Philippe-Alain Michaud, Vanessa Joan Müller
A transcript of this panel is reproduced in the volume Kinomuseum - Towards an Artists' Cinema (see below).
Further material
Buy the publication Kinomuseum - Towards an Artists' Cinema, ed. Mike Sperlinger & Ian White
53rd Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany
4 – 8 May 2007
