Abstract Film Cycle
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Date
- / Cancelled / Sold out
From the apparatus and its generative properties, to the emancipation of synaesthetic, psychedelic, and symbolic narratives, this cycle comprises a wide range of films extending from the 1920s up until the 1970s, surveying the golden era of exploratory artist filmmaking. In doing so, it underlines the liberating potential of abstract narratives and technological experimentalism as crucial to the construction of new sensibilities and subjectivities.
With works by: Mary Ellen Bute, Harry Smith, Jordan Belson, António Palolo, Tony Conrad, Stan van der Beek, Steina and Woody Vasulka, Henry Michaux and Eric Duvivier, Whitney Brothers, Walter Ruttmann, Viking Eggeling, Hans Richter.
Curated by Margarida Mendes
23 September
Friday – 6:00 p.m.
Essential Visual Music: Early Pioneers *
Viking Eggeling:
Symphonie Diagonale, 1924, 16mm, 7‘29”
Walter Ruttmann:
Opus I, 1921, 16mm, 11’10”
Opus II, 1921, 16mm, 3’20”
Opus III, 1924, 16mm, 3’20”
Opus IV, 1925, 16mm, 4’
Hans Richter:
Rhythm 21, 1921, 16mm, 3’22”
Rhythm 23, 1923, 16mm, 3’23’’
Inflation, 1927, 16mm, 2’45”
Ghosts Before Breakfast, 1928, 16mm, 9′
Everything Turns, 1929, 16mm, 3’25”
Race Symphony, 1929, 16mm, 5’05”
Two-Penny Magic, 1929, 16mm, 2’17”
* Prints from the Cecile Starr Collection do Center for Visual Music. Presented in association with Center for Visual Music
24 September
Saturday – 5:00 p.m.
Mary Ellen Bute: Retrospective
Rhythm in Light (in collaboration with Melville Webber and Ted Nemeth), 1934, 16mm, 5’
Dada, 1936, 16mm, 3’
Parabola, 1937, 16mm, 9’
Spook Sport (in collaboration with Norman McLaren), 1939, 16mm, 8’
Tarantella, 1940, 16mm, 5’
Polka Graph, 1947, 16mm, 5’
Color Rhapsody, 1948, 16mm, 4’5’’
Imagination, 1948, 16mm, 3’
New Sensations in Sound RCA Commercial, 1949, 16mm, 3’
Pastorale, 1950, 16mm, 9’
Abstronic, 1952, 16mm, 7’
Mood Contrasts, 1953, 16mm, 7’
30 September
Friday – 6:00 p.m.
The Caleidoscopic Visions of Henry Michaux and Eric Duvivier
Images du Monde Visionnaire, 1963, 16mm transferred to digital copy 34’16”
1 October
Saturday – 5:00 p.m.
Harry Smith’s Psychedelism
Early Abstractions, 1939–1956, 16mm, 23’
Heaven and Earth Magic, 1957-1962, 16mm, 66′
2 October
Sunday – 5:00 p.m.
The Vasulkas
Solo for 3, 1974, digital copy, 4’15”
Reminiscence, 1974, digital copy, 4’48”
Soundgated Images,1974, digital copy, 9’22”
Noisefields,1974, digital copy , 12’05”
Heraldic View, 1974, digital copy , 4’21”
1-2-3-4, 1974, digital copy , 7’46”
Soundsize, 1974, digital copy, 4’40”
Telc, 1974, digital copy, 5’10”
8 October
Saturday – 5:00 p.m.
Jordan Belson: Films Sacred and Profane *
Bop Scotch, 1952, digital, 3’
Mandala, 1953, 16mm, 3’
Séance, 1959, 16mm, 3’5’’; sound: Pierre Schaeffer
Vortex V presentation reel, 1959, 16mm, 5’
Allures, 1961, 16mm, 7’45’’; sound: Jordan Belson and Henry Jacobs
LSD, c. 1962, 16mm, 4’; sound: Jordan Belson (unreleased)
Samadhi, 1967, digital, 5’
Momentum, 1968, 16mm, 6’
Chakra, 1972, 16mm, 6’; sound: Jordan Belson
Cycles (with Stephen Beck), 1974, 16mm, 10’; sound: Stephen Beck
Quartet, c. 1982, digital, 10’ (unreleased)
*Prints from the collection of Center for Visual Music; many were preserved with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Presented in association with Center for Visual Music
9 October
Sunday – 5:00 p.m.
António Palolo
OM, 1977-1978, super 8 transferred to digital copy, 95’04”
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum – Modern Collection
14 October
Friday – 6.00 p.m.
Digital Abstraction Pioneers: The Whitney’s
Five Film Exercises, Films 1 / 2-3 / 4, 1943-44, 16mm, 16′ (to be confirmed)
Yantra, 1950-1957, 16mm, 8’
Lapis, 1963-1966, 16mm, 10′
Permutations, 1968, 16mm, 8′ (to be confirmed)
15 October
Saturday – 5:00 p.m.
Stan VanDerBeek’s Cyberutopianism
Newsreel of Dreams: Part I, 1976, digital copy, 28′
Strobe Ode, 1977, to digital copy, 11′
Vanishing Point Left, 1977, digital copy, 9’30”
16 October
Sunday – 5:00 p.m.
Flicker and Visual Drone: Tony Conrad
The Flicker, 1965, 16mm, 30’
Archives
Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V.; C.V.M Centre for Visual Music; Electronic Arts Intermix; Film-Makers’ Cooperative; Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme; Light Cone; LUX
Some films may be inappropriate for children and contain images such as flashing lights that could trigger a seizure for people with photosensitive epilepsy.