Art Basel 41 ~ Art Films

The Art Film program at Art 41 Basel again features a varied program of films by and about artists, screened at the Stadtkino Basel. The nightly program from Tuesday to Friday, curated by film scholar Marc Glöde (Berlin), presents films by artists including Michaela Meise, Guy Ben-Ner, Korpys/Löffler, Sean Snyder, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Ryan Gander, Jeanne Faust, Cerith Wyn Evans, and Gerhard Richter and has been sub-divided into four evenings with different themes.

On Saturday evening, This Brunner, the Zurich film connaisseur, will present “Women Without Men” (2009) by Shirin Neshat which won the Golden Lion of the 2009 Venice Filmfestival. The evening will be followed by a Q&A with Shirin Neshat, moderated by the Swiss filmmaker Samir.

(Image: Art Basel 41)

ART BASEL ~ 41 ART FILMS ~ PROGRAM DETAILS

Tuesday, June 1

5, 10 p.m.:

And This Is How The Story Goes…

Total running time approximately 78 minutes, curated by Marc Glöde
Second screening, Wednesday, June 16, 10 a.m.
Telling stories – weird, smart, abstract, straightforward, complicated… it is the neverending fascination for the filmic narrative that connects this diverse corpus of films. In the range of different formats these works unfold the question “What is narration?”
Michaela Meise “Lettre to the Eltern” 2010 / 18’35" (Johann König)
Rä di Martino “August 2008” 2009 / 5′ (Monitor)
Guy Ben-Ner “If only it was as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly as it is to masturbate” 2009 / 16’30" (Konrad Fischer Galerie)
Mario Pfeifer “Untitled (Two Guys)” 2008 / 7’30" (Koch Oberhuber Wolff)
Korpys/Löffler “Stadt von Morgen” 2007 / 16’30" (Meyer Riegger)
Sean Snyder “Casio, Seiko, Sheraton, Toyota, Mars” 2004/2005 / 13’09" (Galerie Neu)
Sean Snyder “Afghanistan” 2009 / 2’10" (Galerie Neu)

Wednesday, June 16, 10 p.m.:

 Reference Points

Total running time approximately 71 minutes, curated by Marc Glöde
Second screening, Thursday, June 17, 10 a.m.
Relating to different dynamics of the world is one of the crucial interests in new film positions. This program brings together some of the most remarkable works that ask questions about the relation to the medium, about iconic figures, about historical aspects or just about the self.
Clemens von Wedemeyer “Found Footage (the Fourth Wall Project)” 2009 / 31′ (Galerie Jocelyn Wolff)
Ryan Gander “Basquiat” 2008 / 5’30" (gb agency)
Laurent Grasso “Satellite” 2006 / 9’50" (Sean Kelly Gallery)
Jeanne Faust “Reconstructing Damon Albarn in Kinshasa” 2010 / 9′ (Meyer Riegger)
Alexandra Leykauf “uit de bibliotheek van Wolfgang Frommelt” 2009 / 10’40" (Sassa Trülzsch)
Isabell Heimerdinger “Good Friends” 2010 / 4’30" (Mehdi Chouakri)

Thursday, June 17, 10 p.m.:

Focus Japan

Total running time approximately 61 minutes, curated by Marc Glöde in cooperation with Taka Ishii Gallery and Galerie Daniel Buchholz
Second screening, Friday, June 18, 10 a.m.
This program introduces the historical Japanese film avant-garde movement of Jikken Kobo/Experimental Workshop (1951–1958). The program subsequently presents contemporary films by both Japanese and European artists in an attempt to consider the relationship and mutual influence of a lesser-known Japanese post-war aesthetic on a present generation of artists.
Katsuhiro Yamaguchi / Toshio Matsumoto “The Silver Wheel” 1955 / 11’57"
(National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokio)
Kiyoji Otsuji “Kinecalligraph” 1955/86 / 4’26" (Taka Ishii Gallery)
Takashi Ishida “Wall of the Sean” 2007 / 12′ (Taka Ishii Gallery)
Cerith Wyn Evans “Still Life with Phrenology Head” 1979 / 14′
(Taka Ishii Gallery and Galerie Daniel Buchholz)
Ei Arakawa “Peaceboat Revisiting MRTA” 2009 / 3’26" (Taka Ishii Gallery)
Florian Pumhösl “EI335721443JP” 2010 / 15’10" (Galerie Daniel Buchholz)
The screening is followed by a Q&A with Japanese art critic Minoru Shimizu and Art Film curator Marc Glöde.
Friday, June 18, 10 p.m.: Dark, Blurred And Diffused
Total running time approximately 73 minutes, curated by Marc Glöde
Second screening, Saturday, June 19, 10 a.m.
Dark spaces and diffused atmospheres shape the works that this program brings together. From historical works to new approaches, these films lead us into spaces that range from the uncanny and the irritating to the abstract and the archival.
Gerhard Richter “Volker Bradke” 1966 / 14’32" (Gerhard Richter Archiv Dresden)
Cerith Wyn Evans “I’ve been fooled by love” 2009 / 8’21" (Galerie Neu)
Tobias Zielony “Big Sexyland” 2008 / 3’10" (Koch Oberhuber Wolff)
Tobias Zielony “The Deboard” 2008 / 7’23" (Koch Oberhuber Wolff)
Gabriele Zimmermann and Helmut Nothelfer “US-Waffenschau in Berlin-West, Flughafen Tempelhof” 1972 / 7’18" (Galerie Thomas Zander)
Michael Wutz “Tales, Lies and Exaggerations” 2010 / 9′ (Aurel Scheibler)
Amy Granat “Untitled (Sabotage)” 2007 / 8’56" (Galerie Eva Presenhuber)
Hans Op de Beek “Extensions” 2009 / 10’58" (Galerie Krinzinger)
Joachim Koester “To navigate, in a genuine way, in the unknown necessitates an attitude of daring, but not one of recklessness (movements generated from the Magical Passes of Carlos Castaneda)” 2009 / 3’30" (Jan Mot)

ART FILMS, ART BASEL HIGHLIGHT

Saturday, June 19, 8 p.m.:

Women Without Men

Video clip (not suitable for children)

Running time 99 minutes, curated by This Brunner
Second screening, Sunday, June 20, 10 a.m.

Against the tumultuous backdrop of Iran’s 1953 CIA-backed coup d’état, the destinies of four women converge in a beautiful orchard, where they find independence, solace and companionship.

Acclaimed video artist Shirin Neshat makes her directorial debut with this incisive and sumptuously filmed reflection on the pivotal moment in history that directly led to the Islamic revolution and the Iran we know today.

Shirin Neshat “Women Without Men” 2009 / 99′ (Coproduction Office)
The screening is followed by a Q&A with Shirin Neshat, moderated by the Swiss filmmaker Samir.

Part allegory, part historical drama, Women Without Men chronicles the lives of five women living in Tehran during the British- and American-backed coup of the democratically elected government in 1953. Among them are Munis, a woman struggling against the restrictions of her fundamentalist brother; Farrokhlaqa, an upper-class wife frustrated with her passionless marriage to a general; Zarin, a young sex trade worker who becomes overwhelmed by her conditions; Mahdokht, who is struggling with the loss of her virginity; and Faezeh, a women obsessed with marrying her friend Munis’ brother. Though the women’s daily lives are depicted with a grainy realism, the film eventually gives way to saturated colours and fantastical panoramas as each of the protagonists finds her way to an enchanted garden without men.

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