THE ARTISTS CINEMA is a pioneering project bringing artists and cinemas together. Established at the Frieze Art Fair in 2005 where a fully functional cinema was constructed and run within the art fair. The cinema presented a series of specially curated programmes surveying contemporary work in relation to historical legacies, the political climate, and contemporary formal and aesthetic concerns.
This year THE ARTISTS CINEMA has commissioned five artists to produce new 35mm films. The films are now touring throughout the UK, appearing in cinemas before feature films bringing THE ARTISTS CINEMA to new audiences. Acting as a free floating exhibition the five films will be glimpsed in the gaps within the cinema schedual. Challenging cinemas and the way artists film and video is treated, the project seeks to privilege the cinema audience and bring back unexpected encounters into the the darkened auditorium.
For more information see the dedicated website:
www.theartistscinema.org.uk
Or visit THE ARTISTS CINEMA partners
www.frieze.com
www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk
www.lux.org.uk
Here's information on the five films. Look out for them at your local cinema.
The Anthem
By Apichatpong Weerasethakul | Thailand | 2006
The Anthem is a celebration of film making and the viewing experience by celebrated Thai filmmaker and artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul (director of Tropical Malady). Weerasethakul creates an eccentric ceremonial ritual to present a ‘Cinema Anthem’ that praises and blesses the approaching feature for each screening. The ritual is supposed to make any film a masterpiece.
Guest of Honor
By Miguel Calderón | Mexico | 2006
Acclaimed Mexican artist Miguel Calderón’s film is one of an ongoing series of narrative shorts based on stories told to him by friends which will one day come together as a longer film. Guest of Honor follows a family who encounter a deer on a Sunday picnic and adopt it as a domestic pet with scatological consequences.
he who laughs last laughs longest
By Phil Collins | UK | 2006
2006 Turner prize nominee Phil Collins produced his film over the summer of 2006 at an event where the artist offered a cash prize to the person who could laugh continuously for the longest time. he who laughs last laughs longest touches upon ideas of manipulation and hysteria, while focusing on the struggle to sustain one of the most primitive and deceptive forms of communication.
Presto – Perfect Sound
By Manon de Boer | Belgium | 2006
Dutch artist Manon de Boer’s elegant film is a meditation on the relationship between sound and image. Composer and violinist, George Van Dam, is filmed as he performs the fourth movement of a Bartók violin sonata. It is an intense reflection on a moment of creative concentration, with the performer fully absorbed as if out of sync with the world around him.
Special Afflictions by Roy Harryhozen
By Bonnie Camplin | UK | 2006
Bonnie Camplin’s film is inspired by the 1970s British horror film The Mutations by Jack Cardiff. Four helpless sideshow freaks have been diabolically altered with a ‘special effect’ by their employer Roy Harryhozen. Combining live action and animation it is a surreal meditation on man’s hopeless relationship with his own consciousness.