09.11.2010 - 05.12.2010 : Acting?

Acting? is a program of video works in which the act of acting is investigated in the independent way that is characteristic for the visual arts. Playing roles, as a ritual way of reflecting reality, appears in large-scale re-enactments of historical events as well as in the 'between the sliding doors' act by the individual artist.

23.11.2010 : ARTISTS TALK : PAUL WILLEMSEN

8PM 5€ - Re-enactment as Critical Strategy, a lecture by Paul Willemsen artistic director and curator of Argos Arts Brussels. During his talk Paul will show fragments from The Battle of Orgrave by Jeremy Deller, The Eternal Frame by Ant Farm and La Commune by Peter Watkins. www.argosarts.org

Eenmaal is geenmaal (sorry, dutch only)
Re-enactment als kritische strategie


In de audiovisuele- en beeldende kunsten vormen re-enactments vandaag een markant verschijnsel, hoewel het fenomeen in de documentaire niet nieuw is. Filmpionier Mélies herensceneerde al in 1900 de Chinese Bokseropstand. Ook documentairemaker Robert Flaherty liet niet na om in de stille film klassieker ‘Nanook of the North’ (1922) één en ander in scène te zetten. De Inuit die in het echt met geweer jaagde, rust hij uit met pijl en boog. Of de Eskimo wendt een gevecht voor met een dode zeehond. Het verschil met deze werken uit de beginjaren van de film en re-enactments vandaag, is dat een honderdjarige (massa)mediageschiedenis tussen beide ligt en dat onze verhouding tot geschiedenis fundamenteel veranderde. De wereld is tot in zijn kleinste uithoeken zo in kaart gebracht dat een van de weinige potentiële ruimtes waarover de mensheid nog beschikt paradoxaal nu net het verleden is. De boeiendste en betekenisvolste re-enactments vandaag zijn deze die traumatische (en dikwijls fel gemediatiseerde) historische gebeurtenissen als uitgangspunt nemen; waar elementen van catharsis en maatschappelijke kritiek de kern van uitmaken en die in tegenstelling tot de generische audiovisuele productie het eigen medium zichtbaar maken. De lezing gaat nader in op drie voorbeelden: ‘The Eternal Frame’ (1975) van het Californische kunstenaarscollectief Ant Farm, ‘The Battle of Orgreave’ (2002) van beeldend kunstenaar Jeremy Deller en filmmaker Mike Figgis en de docu-fictie ‘La Commune (Paris, 1871)’ (2000) van Peter Watkins.

Paul Willemsen, artistiek directeur van het Brussels kunstencentrum Argos.
www.argosarts.org

Lees de tekst van de lezing >>

16.11.2010 - 05.12.2010 : COMPILATION

KEREN CYTTER IL : Family 4.00
In her films, video-installations and drawings Keren Cytter discusses the temporary social reality by means of experimental ways of storytelling. In Family she plays with the roles: for instance men talk with the voice of woman, an adult plays the role of a child.

ASTRID VAN NIMWEGEN NL : Bart 2007 fragment 8.00
In Bart, Astrid asked her brother - who is not an actor - to pronounce a monologue that could have been spoken by their grand father, who as a young man joint the KNIL in Indonesia. Bart is not acting but is aware of the way his grandfather would have spoken about the subject.

BUBBLELE BIM NL : Van Bubbelebimse Huize 2008 7:15
'We are Bubbelebim, (anti)literary absurdistic theatre/performance/video duo from Rotterdam: Sim Sala Bubbelebim and Professius T. Taal' In Van Bubbelebimse Huize' Max and Bart play an intelligent game with the phenomenon of Reality TV. Slapstick at first sight, 'reality' reveals itself in layers.

TIM ETCHELLS UK : Kent Beason is a classic & an absolute new thing. fragm. 8:00
Kent is an actor of Forced Entertainment, the British theatre group of which the artist Tim Etchells is artistic director. Kent is pronouncing the long memorised text of a role, which he is loosing again and again, but it is not clear if he is playing this or that his failure is real. His position on different spots on the same location underlines the artificiality of the act.

IRINA BOTEA RO : Auditions for a Revolution 2006 (fragment) 6:00
In December 2005 Irina Botea invited students and teachers from the
Chicago Art Institute to re-enact the events from Bucharest during the night of Dec. 21 1989 when the communist regime of Ceausescu collapsed. The team re-enacts the historic moments of the revolution, by recreating the scenes from the original revolution footage.
The film combines actual footage of the revolution with the reenactments of those same televised events.

IRINA BOTEA RO : Reconstituira 2006 8:00
Botea's idea with was to organize the re-enactment of a game, that she was once saw being played by a group of children. A nearly ritual act, the resembling of a mortuary process....

JACQUELINE FORZELIUS SE/NL : Its never their fault 2009 4:00
This young artist recently finished her studies at Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam. She makes short ironic films in which she herself plays the main role. In 'Woman always blame their problems on men' or, 'Its never their fault' she is playing with this playing. The text was written by Carloz Mencia (and can we believe this?)