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A Lower World: Excesses and Extremes in Film and Video
October 4th - November 29th www.pdome.org
I-Be Area, Ryan Trecartin (2007, 108 min. video)/ Naturkatastrophenkonzert, Die Tödliche Doris (1983, 3 min. video)
Two years in the planning, Pleasure Dome's curatorial project A Lower World: Excesses and Extremes in Film and Video officially launches on Oct.4th during Nuit Blanche with performances by Portland-based group Hooliganship (Peter Burr and Christopher Doulgeris in person) to present Cartune Xprez: a roadshow of animated videos and multimedia performances. On the following weekend Oct. 11th/12th Pleasure Dome opens the first gallery exhibition in our 20-year history of screening experimental media art at Pixel Gallery, 156 Augusta Ave., (opening 1 - 6pm) with video works by: Takeshi Murata, Michael Bell-Smith (in Person), Mungo Thomson, Nathalie Djurberg, Marcus Coates, Julian Hoeber, and Laurel Nakadate (in Person); followed with an extensive programme of short videos by New York-based artist Laurel Nakadate (8pm @ Latvian House, 491 College St.). Known for her sexually provocative work, Jerry Saltz named her as a "standout" in the 2005's Greater New York exhibition at P.S.1. Sunday, October 12th, 2pm will feature an Artist Talk with Laurel Nakadate and Michael Bell-Smith @ Pixel Gallery and an evening screening of I-Be Area by the rising American video artist Ryan Trecartin (Canadian Premiere 8pm @ Latvian House).
- This eight week fall programming series also includes numerous single night screenings by such artists as John Bock (Germany), Mike Kelley (US), Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn (US), and Barry Doupé (Canada)
- A three-part series of films and videos from West Berlin artists from the 1980's curated by Florian Wüst and Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (in Person) titled Screaming City: West-Berlin 1980s (October 17th)
- A six-part retrospective on Alexander Kluge, one of Germany's most influential and revolutionary filmmakers, philosophers and authors. Revisiting the Films of Alexander Kluge is a co-presentation with Goethe-Institut Toronto and Camera Bar/Stephen Bulger Gallery. (October 28 - November 12th)
- To See the Enormous Night Arise - an evening of live performances from some of Canada's leading young performance artists: Gale Allen, Irene Loughlin, Naufús Ramirez-Figueroa and Mikiki (November 9th)
- A historical programme of seminal performances from 1960/70s featuring Yves Klein, Yoko Ono, Chris Burden and Vienna Aktionists titled Testing Body, Mind and Soul: Historical Performances (November 15th)
-A lecture by Erin Manning (Concordia University) on artist Jim Campbell; and a book launch for Pleasure Dome's publication Cinematic Folds: the furling and unfurling of images. Edited by Firoza Elavia with image curation by Linda Feesey (November 1st)
Visit www.pdome.org for a detailed description of A Lower World events.
A Lower World: Excesses and Extremes in Film and Video
Schedule of Events: Saturday, October 4 - Saturday, November 29, 2008:
Saturday, October 4, 9pm & 11pm @ CineCycle, 129 Spadina Ave. PWYC
Hooliganship: Cartune Xprez
Peter Burr and Christopher Doulgeris (in Person)
Portland-based Hooliganship are in Toronto on Nuit Blanche to present Cartune Xprez: a roadshow of animated videos and multimedia performances.
Saturday, October 11-November 29
A Lower World: Excesses and Extremes in Film and Video
Exhibition @ Pixel Gallery, 156 Augusta Ave.
Opening October 11, 1-6pm
Laurel Nakadate & Michael Bell-Smith (in Person)
Media Works:
Monster Movie, Takeshi Murata, 2005, 4 min., single-channel video on monitor, looped playback with headphones
Up and Away, Michael Bell-Smith, 2006, 7 min., single-channel video projected, looped playback with sound
The American Desert (for Chuck Jones), Mungo Thomson, 2002, 34 min., single-channel video projected, looped playback with sound
Untitled (Working Title Kids & Dogs), Nathalie Djurberg, 2007, 33 min., two-channel video on LCD monitors, looped playback with headphones
Journey to the Lower World, Marcus Coates, 2004, 30 min., single-channel video on monitor, looped playback with headphones
Killing Friends, Julian Hoeber, 2001, 31 min. single-channel video on LCD monitor, looped playback with headphones accompanied with a set of Polaroid photographs
Beg for Your Life, Laurel Nakadate, 2006, 13 min. single-channel video on LCD monitor, looped playback with headphones
Where You'll Find Me, Laurel Nakadate, 2005, 4 min. single-channel video on LCD monitor, looped playback with headphones
Saturday, October 11, 8pm @ Latvian House, 491 College St.
We Are All Made of Stars: Videos by Laurel Nakadate (in Person)
Nakadate's video work is about adventure and risk. Part documentary, part make-believe, she meets strange men in their worlds and weaves complex, sexual narratives that straddle a thin line between tragedy and comedy.
Programme:
Oops 2000, 4 min. video
Happy Birthday 2000, 5 min. video
Lessons 1 - 10 2001, 2 min. video
Greater New York 2005, 5 min. video
Stories 2005, 13 min. video
Love Hotels 2004, 3 min. video
Where You'll Find Me 2005, 4 min. video
Beg For Your Life 2006: 13 min. video
I Want to be the One Who Walks in the Sun 2006, 15 min. video
Say You Love Me 2007, 3 min. video
Sunday, October 12, 2pm @ Pixel Gallery, 156 Augusta Ave. FREE!
Artist Talks with Michael Bell-Smith & Laurel Nakadate
Join us for talks by two very different but equally exciting young American artists with work in the A Lower World show at Pixel Gallery, Michael Bell-Smith (Up and Away) and Laurel Nakadate (Beg for Your Life & Where You'll Find Me).
Sunday, October 12, 8pm @ Latvian House, 491 College St.
Ryan Trecartin I-Be Area (2007, 108 min. video)
With whip-smart wit and a candy-coloured whirlwind of camp theatrics, cyber-slang and dumpster drag, Trecartin captures the manic energy of a generation of brains fried by computers and the internet, running on the fumes of their own verbal diarrhea. Fusing queer performance hysterics with hallucinatory, rapid-fire digital manipulation of every surface and sound, Trecartin creates a cracked parallel universe only slightly more surreal and fast-paced than the one we inhabit now.
Friday, October 17, 7pm/9pm/10:30pm @ CineCycle, 129 Spadina Ave.
$5 per programme or $10 for the whole evening
Screaming City: West-Berlin 1980s
Curated by Florian Wüst and Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (in Person)
A co-presentation with Goethe-Institut Toronto
The extraordinary activity of the various groups and individuals working with film and video in West-Berlin in the 1980s was subject to an extensive retrospective in October 2006 at Kino Arsenal, Berlin, entitled Who says that concrete doesn't burn? Did you try? For Pleasure Dome, the curators Florian Wüst and Stefanie Schulte Strathaus selected two short film programmes and a feature-length music film that cast light on this unique yet partly forgotten historical period and an urban site of German film production.
7pm Programme 1: Under Siege (73 min)
a-b-city, Brigitte Bühler, Dieter Hormel, 1985, 8 min. Super-8
Böse zu sein ist auch ein Beweis von Gefühl, Cynthia Beatt, 1983, 25 min. 16mm
60cm über dem Erdboden, Andrea Hillen, 1984, 6 min. Super-8
Geld, Brigitte Bühler, Dieter Hormel, 1983, 4 min. Super-8
Tattoo Suite, Rolf S. Wolkenstein, 1984, 23 min. 16mm
Darum oder was erwartest Du?, Jürgen Baldiga, 1981, 7 min. Super-8
9pm Programme 2: Night Souls (61 min)
Normalzustand, Yana Yo, 1981, 3 min. Super-8 on DVD
Bad Blood for the Vampyr, Lysanne Thibodeau, 1984, 22 min. 16mm
Ohne Liebe gibt es keinen Tod, Ingrid Maye, Volker Rendschmidt, 1980, 4 min. Super-8 on DVD
Persona Non Grata, Christoph Doering, 1981, 16 min. Super-8 on DVD
Kreuzberger Frauen, Klaus Beyer, 1983, 3 min. Super-8 on DVD
Die Botschaft (Totentanz 8), Michael Brynntrup, 1989, 10 min. 16mm
Naturkatastrophenkonzert, Die Tödliche Doris, 1983, 3 min. video
10:30pm Program 3: OKAY OKAY. Der moderne Tanz
OKAY OKAY. Der moderne Tanz, Christoph Dreher, Heiner Mühlenbrock, 1980, 90 min. 16mm
Saturday, October 18, 8pm @ CineCycle,129 Spadina Ave. FREE!
The Philosopher of Chaos: Films by John Bock (and others)
Blending a theatre of the absurd with grotesque sculptural detritus, the Berlin-based John Bock is one of the most exciting artists at work today. Freely mixing performance, video, installation and sculpture in his polymorphously perverse "lectures" and actions, Bock makes spectacular messes out of wooden furniture, craft materials, textiles, appliances, food and other junk.
Programme:
Boxer, John Bock, 2002, 3 min. video
Gast, John Bock, 2004, 12 min. video
Meechfieber, John Bock, 2004, 39 min. video
Screening with:
Gewald, Tamy Ben-Tor, 2007, 9 min. video (US)
Casting Spells, Emily Jones, 2006, 20 min. video (Canada)
Saturday, October 25, 8pm @ CineCycle, 129 Spadina Ave.
Sad Nuggets: Videos by Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn
Los Angeles-based duo Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn have created a number of performance-based video works over the past few years that revitalize the genre through their richly nuanced sense of character, their queer comedy and their oddly poignant sensitivity to pathological behaviour.
Programme:
Winner, 2002, 15 min. video
Can't Swallow It, Can't Spit It Out, 2006, 26 min. video
Whacker, 2005, 7 min. video
Let the Good Times Roll, 2004, 16 min. video
All Together Now, 2008, 27 min. video
October 28 - November 12 @ Camera Bar, 1028 Queen St. W.,
$5 series membership plus $5 per evening
Revisiting the Films of Alexander Kluge
A co-presentation with Goethe-Institut Toronto and Camera Bar/Stephen Bulger Gallery
Tickets at the door or for advance purchase contact info@bulgergallery.com or call 416-504-0575
As one of Germany's most influential and revolutionary filmmakers, philosophers and authors, Alexander Kluge - who had close ties to Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School - was one of the principal architects of a movement that lead to what we have come to know as New German Cinema. While addressing essential formal and political concerns of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s in Germany, Kluge's feature films carry with them thematic and stylistic resonances that clearly speak to us to this day. All films German with English subtitles, screened on DVD.
Programme:
Tuesday, October 28 (double-feature evening)
Part-Time Work of a Domestic Slave, 1973, 87 min. 7pm
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In Danger and Deep Distress the Middle Way Spells Certain Death, 1974, 90 min. 9pm
Wednesday, October 29 (double-feature evening)
Strongman Ferdinand, 1975/96, 97 min. 7pm
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Germany in Autumn, 1978, 119 min. 9pm
Tuesday, November 4, 7 pm
The Female Patriot, 1979, 121 min.
Wednesday, November 5, 7pm
War and Peace, 1982/83, 118 min.
Tuesday, November 11 (double-feature evening)
The Candidate, 1982, 118 min. 7pm
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The Power of Emotions, 1983, 112 min. 9pm
Wednesday, November 12 (double-feature evening)
The Blind Director, 1985, 106 min. 7pm
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Serpentine Gallery (daring short reinterpretations of his feature films), 1995-2005, 100 min. 9pm
Saturday, November 1, 3 - 6pm FREE!
@ Pixel Gallery, 156 Augusta Ave.
Colouring the Virtual: Jim Campbell & Cinematic Futurity
Talk by Erin Manning, moderated by Firoza Elavia
Pleasure Dome is delighted to present a talk by film and visual studies philosopher Erin Manning (Concordia University) on artist Jim Campbell. Jim Campbell's sculptural installations and filmic images have pioneered new ways of looking: the closer you get to the images, the more intangible they become. In her talk Manning will explore how Campbell's work creates propositions for vision that alter not only how an image is seen in its framed stability, but how the instability of its composition occasions kinesthetic experience that destabilizes the visual predominance of moving images.
Erin Manning is Assistant Professor in studio art and film studies at Concordia University (Montreal) as well as director of the Sense Lab, a laboratory that explores the intersections between art practice and philosophy through the matrix of the sensing body in movement www.senselab.ca . In her art practice she works between movement, painting, fabric and sculpture. Publications include Politics of Touch: Sense, Movement, Sovereignty and Ephemeral Territories: Representing Nation, Home and Identity in Canada. Her current book-project is called Relationscapes: Movement, Art, Philosophy.
Firoza Elavia is a Pleasure Dome collective member and completing her doctoral dissertation in the philosophy of film and new media studies at York University, Toronto.
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Book launch for Pleasure Dome's publication Cinematic Folds: the furling and unfurling of images
Join us to also celebrate the launch of Pleasure Dome's most recent anthology, Cinematic Folds: the furling and unfurling of images, edited by Firoza Elavia with images curated by Linda Feesey.
Saturday, November 8, 8pm @ Latvian House, 491 College St.
Mike Kelley, Day Is Done (2006, 169 min. video)
We are very excited to be presenting a rare screening of Los Angeles art star Mike Kelley's recently re-edited feature Day Is Done, an epic investigation of the mythic archetypes and carnivalesque folk culture of America. This self-described musical - with lyrics by Kelley himself - assembles a loose narrative out of thirty-one performative vignettes which the artist has dubbed "extracurricular activity projective reconstructions."
Sunday, November 9, 8pm @ Latvian House, 491 College St. $10/$5 members
To See the Enormous Night Arise
Performaces by Gale Allen, Irene Loughlin, Mikiki & Naufús Ramirez-Figueroa
To See the Enormous Night Arise brings forth four remarkable performance artists that seek the stars as their bodies explode, pushing the limits of the flesh and the forces that seek to keep them defined.
Saturday, November 15, 8pm @ CineCycle, 129 Spadina Ave.
Testing Body, Mind and Soul: Historical Performances
A selection of seminal performances from 1960 onwards that have been preserved on film or tape. All involve the body and a conceptual framework that hinges on an uncontrollable factor.
Programme:
Anthropometrics of the Blue Period and Five Paintings: Two Performances, Yves Klein, 1960, 7 min. 16mm (France)
Cut Piece (Yoko Ono, Carnegie Hall), David and Albert Maysles, 1965, 9 min. 16mm (US)
Onetwothree Actions: Otto Muehl, Günter Brus, Peter Weibel, Valie Export, Ernst Schmidt, 1965-8, 10 min. 16mm (Austria)
Documentation of Selected Works, Chris Burden, 1971-4, 35 min. video (US)
Family Tyranny/Cultural Soup, Paul McCarthy with Mike Kelley, 1987, 15 min. video (US)
Meat Joy, Carolee Schneemann, 1964, 6 min, 16 mm film on video (US)
Saturday, November 22, 8pm @ CineCycle, 129 Spadina Ave.
Under the Microscope
This eclectic selection of films rupture and twist the disembodied and authoritative gaze of science. They offer unexpected breakdowns in the way the camera looks at things it wants to learn more about, with each piece showing you sights you don't normally see - or want to see.
Programme:
Faceless Things, Kim Kyung-Mook, 2005, 65 min. video (South Korea)
Sick Film, Martin Creed, 2006, 20 min. video (UK)
Brain Surgeon, Ömer Ali Kazma, 2007, 15 min. video (Turkey)
Magnetic Movie, Semiconductor, 2007, 5 min. video (UK)
Saturday, November 29, 8pm @ CineCycle, 129 Spadina Ave.
Ponytail by Barry Doupé (in Person)
Barry Doupé most recent work Ponytail (2008, 90 min. computer animation on video) follows several inflicted characters and recounts the ways in which they find resolve. A series of entropic scenarios held together by an attraction to failure and its spectacle describe the characters' malfunction - their inability to fulfil personal desire.
Pleasure Dome is a year-round film and video exhibition group dedicated to the presentation of experimental film and video. The 2008/2009 Programming Collective is: Andrea Cooper, Jon Davies, Firoza Elavia, Linda Feesey, Nick Fox-Gieg, David Frankovich, Brenda Goldstein, Oliver Husain, Jean-Paul Kelly, Jacob Korczynski, Erik Martinson, Gabrielle Moser and Ben Portis. Tom Taylor is the Program Coordinator. Pleasure Dome acknowledges the support of our members, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.
Pleasure Dome does not submit any of its film and video programming for prior approval by any censoring bodies.
(A Lower World Continued)
About Pleasure Dome: Pleasure Dome is a year-round film and video exhibition group dedicated to the presentation of experimental film and video. Since 1989, the Pleasure Dome programming collective has been presenting some of the most innovative and challenging work produced by media artists from Canada and abroad.
Pleasure Dome acknowledges the support of our members, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.
For more information, or stills please visit www.pdome.org or contact:
Tom Taylor
Pleasure Dome Coordinator
416 656 5577
pdome@ican.net
Andrea Cooper
Pleasure Dome Board Member
647 299 2909
andrea.cooper@gmail.com
