Projects
FLAMIN Productions 2010
The following five projects have been commissioned for FLAMIN Productions 2010:
Transcalar Investment Vehicles by Hilary Koob-Sassen
Working with and across text, song, sculpture, film, animation and performance, Hilary Koob-Sassen creates systems in which these diverse approaches work together to reflect and address the current bio-economic situation through which we are formed as social, physical and political subjects.
Concerned with producing artworks that function as radical proposals rather than static historical markers, Koob-Sassen's films lay bare the mechanisms of power to suggest alternative realities. Koob-Sassen is fascinated by narrativity, which he understands as the apparatus with which a protagonist writes his or her own story. Specifically, his work is concerned with the feedback loop between the built environment and living flesh, through which humanity's grand political, historical and economic narratives are produced.
Extending these subjects and working methods, Transcalar Investment Vehicles is constructed in two parts: the first situates cultural look-out positions in an animation. Thus assembled, the animated figure begins to realize, vocalize and inhabit its story.
Biography: Hilary Koob-Sassen's work has been exhibited widely at film festivals and galleries internationally, including: Athens Biennial (2009); Transmediale Festival, Berlin (2009); European Media Art Festival (EMAF), Osnabruecken (2006); Beijing Film Academy (2009); Sketch Gallery, London (2009); Serpentine Gallery, London (2008); and British Film Institute and South London Gallery, London (2007). His recent project Faith In Infrastructuretook form as a manifesto, six sculptures, six songs, a variety of performances and a 30 minute hi-resolution film, which together populated and navigated a model of biological life in time.
GONDA by Ursula Mayer
The film GONDA takes Ayn Rand's play Ideal as its starting point. Known as a controversial Russian/American novelist, screenwriter and philosopher, Rand's writing focused on unpacking her philosophical system 'Objectivism', a staunchly anti-altruistic and individualistic position. Through experimental writing workshops the discussions of London academics, writers, actors and artists we transcribed, in order to produce a script that was developed by writer Maria Fusco. Along with this engagement in representational critique and the exploration of linguistic systems in film and literature the inquiry into Ayn Rand's ideas can be transformed into a critical reading of aspects of revolutionary modernism and how this continues to impact our society today.
Supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture, and the Elephant Trust.
Biography: Ursula Mayer's recent works question the perception of history through conventions such as temporal linearity and cinematic narrative. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and completed her MA at Goldsmiths College in 2005 in London. Her films have been presented at film festivals including Locarno, Oberhausen and Rotterdam. Recent solo exhibitions include: Kunstverein Hamburg, ICA, London, Whitechapel Gallery, London, Frame, Frieze Art Fair, London, Lentos, Museum of Modern Art, Linz, Centraal Museum, Utrecht; Recent Participations in group shows are: Musée d´art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal; Bonnier Kunsthalle, Stockholm; PS1, New York; Kunsthalle Basel; EAST International, Norwich; 2nd Athens Biennial; 4thTirana International Art Biennial; In 2011 her complete films will be shown at Centre Pompidou in Paris and she is recommended for the International Studio Program (ISCP), New York.
The Wanderer by Laure Prouvost
Laure Prouvost's The Wanderer will develop from a fictional story in which a character undergoes a series of increasingly bizarre and mysterious experiences. As he tries to hold onto reality, it seems to melt from under him. Mixing everyday footage with staged interludes, the plot will constantly be undermined by disparate audio/visual elements and misunderstandings. "The Wanderer" is based on a work by artist Rory Macbeth, who has translated a Kafka novella from German into English without any knowledge of the German language and without a dictionary.
Commissioned with Book Works and Spike Island.
Biography: Laure Prouvost is an artist whose work explores ideas of translation between languages and across different media such as painting, video, sound and installation. She attended Central Saint Martins, Goldsmiths College and the LUX Associate Artists Programme, and was director of the online exhibition platform tank.tv.
In 2009, Laure received the EAST International Award and a Principle Prize at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen. She has presented solo shows at Flat Time House (2010), Tate Britain Lightbox (2010), Berlin After the Butcher (2009) and Brighton Lighthouse (2008), and participated in Frame at the Frieze Art Fair and New Contemporaries 2010. Laure Prouvost is represented by MOT International and her videos are distributed by LUX.
http://www.laureprouvost.com
My Grandparents' Tenant by Grace Schwindt
My Grandparents' Tenant takes as a starting point an interview that the artist conducted with her grandparents about a woman who rented a room in their home in Berlin. She turned out to be a friend of Vladimir Lenin and helped him to travel from Switzerland to Russia in the 'sealed train' after the 'February Revolution' broke out in Russia in 1917. The interview discusses how knowledge is produced through a complex structure of personal needs and social expectations.
The family home serves as a stage to re-enact this interview with the help of performers. The relationship between physical movement and language explores roles and functions that these two elements play in the creation of identities and relations.
Co-produced with City Projects.
Biography: Grace Schwindt has exhibited her work internationally in film festivals and galleries, including recent projects at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2010), Oberhausen Film Festival, Oberhausen (2010), White Columns, New York (2010), Photographers' Gallery (2009), 2nd Athens Biennale in Greece (2010) and EAST International, Norwich (2009). She completed an MA in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2008 and is a recipient of the Associate Artist programme at LUX in 2009.
Fulll Firearms by Emily Wardill
A woman (Imelda) in her 40's inherits a fortune from her Father. Her Father made his money selling Firearms and Imelda is plagued by guilt at the source of her income. In order to assuage her guilt, she spends every part of her money on building a house to accommodate the ghosts of people who have been killed by the guns manufactured by her father's company.
Transcalar Investment Vehicles by Hilary Koob-Sassen
Working with and across text, song, sculpture, film, animation and performance, Hilary Koob-Sassen creates systems in which these diverse approaches work together to reflect and address the current bio-economic situation through which we are formed as social, physical and political subjects.
Concerned with producing artworks that function as radical proposals rather than static historical markers, Koob-Sassen's films lay bare the mechanisms of power to suggest alternative realities. Koob-Sassen is fascinated by narrativity, which he understands as the apparatus with which a protagonist writes his or her own story. Specifically, his work is concerned with the feedback loop between the built environment and living flesh, through which humanity's grand political, historical and economic narratives are produced.
Extending these subjects and working methods, Transcalar Investment Vehicles is constructed in two parts: the first situates cultural look-out positions in an animation. Thus assembled, the animated figure begins to realize, vocalize and inhabit its story.
Biography: Hilary Koob-Sassen's work has been exhibited widely at film festivals and galleries internationally, including: Athens Biennial (2009); Transmediale Festival, Berlin (2009); European Media Art Festival (EMAF), Osnabruecken (2006); Beijing Film Academy (2009); Sketch Gallery, London (2009); Serpentine Gallery, London (2008); and British Film Institute and South London Gallery, London (2007). His recent project Faith In Infrastructuretook form as a manifesto, six sculptures, six songs, a variety of performances and a 30 minute hi-resolution film, which together populated and navigated a model of biological life in time.
GONDA by Ursula Mayer
The film GONDA takes Ayn Rand's play Ideal as its starting point. Known as a controversial Russian/American novelist, screenwriter and philosopher, Rand's writing focused on unpacking her philosophical system 'Objectivism', a staunchly anti-altruistic and individualistic position. Through experimental writing workshops the discussions of London academics, writers, actors and artists we transcribed, in order to produce a script that was developed by writer Maria Fusco. Along with this engagement in representational critique and the exploration of linguistic systems in film and literature the inquiry into Ayn Rand's ideas can be transformed into a critical reading of aspects of revolutionary modernism and how this continues to impact our society today.
Supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture, and the Elephant Trust.
Biography: Ursula Mayer's recent works question the perception of history through conventions such as temporal linearity and cinematic narrative. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and completed her MA at Goldsmiths College in 2005 in London. Her films have been presented at film festivals including Locarno, Oberhausen and Rotterdam. Recent solo exhibitions include: Kunstverein Hamburg, ICA, London, Whitechapel Gallery, London, Frame, Frieze Art Fair, London, Lentos, Museum of Modern Art, Linz, Centraal Museum, Utrecht; Recent Participations in group shows are: Musée d´art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal; Bonnier Kunsthalle, Stockholm; PS1, New York; Kunsthalle Basel; EAST International, Norwich; 2nd Athens Biennial; 4thTirana International Art Biennial; In 2011 her complete films will be shown at Centre Pompidou in Paris and she is recommended for the International Studio Program (ISCP), New York.
The Wanderer by Laure Prouvost
Laure Prouvost's The Wanderer will develop from a fictional story in which a character undergoes a series of increasingly bizarre and mysterious experiences. As he tries to hold onto reality, it seems to melt from under him. Mixing everyday footage with staged interludes, the plot will constantly be undermined by disparate audio/visual elements and misunderstandings. "The Wanderer" is based on a work by artist Rory Macbeth, who has translated a Kafka novella from German into English without any knowledge of the German language and without a dictionary.
Commissioned with Book Works and Spike Island.
Biography: Laure Prouvost is an artist whose work explores ideas of translation between languages and across different media such as painting, video, sound and installation. She attended Central Saint Martins, Goldsmiths College and the LUX Associate Artists Programme, and was director of the online exhibition platform tank.tv.
In 2009, Laure received the EAST International Award and a Principle Prize at the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen. She has presented solo shows at Flat Time House (2010), Tate Britain Lightbox (2010), Berlin After the Butcher (2009) and Brighton Lighthouse (2008), and participated in Frame at the Frieze Art Fair and New Contemporaries 2010. Laure Prouvost is represented by MOT International and her videos are distributed by LUX.
http://www.laureprouvost.com
My Grandparents' Tenant by Grace Schwindt
My Grandparents' Tenant takes as a starting point an interview that the artist conducted with her grandparents about a woman who rented a room in their home in Berlin. She turned out to be a friend of Vladimir Lenin and helped him to travel from Switzerland to Russia in the 'sealed train' after the 'February Revolution' broke out in Russia in 1917. The interview discusses how knowledge is produced through a complex structure of personal needs and social expectations.
The family home serves as a stage to re-enact this interview with the help of performers. The relationship between physical movement and language explores roles and functions that these two elements play in the creation of identities and relations.
Co-produced with City Projects.
Biography: Grace Schwindt has exhibited her work internationally in film festivals and galleries, including recent projects at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2010), Oberhausen Film Festival, Oberhausen (2010), White Columns, New York (2010), Photographers' Gallery (2009), 2nd Athens Biennale in Greece (2010) and EAST International, Norwich (2009). She completed an MA in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2008 and is a recipient of the Associate Artist programme at LUX in 2009.
Fulll Firearms by Emily Wardill
A woman (Imelda) in her 40's inherits a fortune from her Father. Her Father made his money selling Firearms and Imelda is plagued by guilt at the source of her income. In order to assuage her guilt, she spends every part of her money on building a house to accommodate the ghosts of people who have been killed by the guns manufactured by her father's company.
The house is being built when a number of people move in to squat the half finished premises. They have a relationship to the actual people who have been killed by the arms manufactured by Imelda's Father's company. Imelda's perception of these squatters is awry. She sees them as the ghosts that she had hoped would move into the property and is therefore not hostile to their presence.
Eventually, Imelda is confronted with the difference between who she expected and who actually inhabits her property through an act of retaliation.
Co-commissioned by If I Can't Dance I Don't Want To Be Part of Your Revolution, Amsterdam and Serpentine Gallery, London. Co-produced with City Projects. Supported by M HKA, Antwerp and Badischer Kunstverein.
Biography: Wardill's solo projects include Exhibitions at The Showroom, London(2009), the ICA, London (2008), Fortescue Avenue / Jonathan Viner, London (2005, 2006), STANDARD(OSLO) (2008) and the performance event 'The Feast Against Nature', at PS1 Contemporary Art Centre, New York (2004). In 2006 she featured in the Art Now Lightbox programme at Tate Britain, and her work has been screened at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, Witte de With, Rotterdam, the London Film Festival and The New York Film Festival. August 2008 saw her performance 'Life is a Dream' at The Serpentine Gallery, London and her nomination for the Jarman Award. Recently, she has been included in group shows at MOCA Miami (2009) and Tate Britain (2009). She currently has a Solo Show at De Appel and is included in The British Art Show. She won The Jarman Award in 2010.
