[spectre] Florian Wüst at DAG [ lecture + film program ]

[stefan rusu]

Dushanbe Art Ground
 
is happy to announce:


*LIFE ON SCREEN* - a lecture/video presentation & *FROM COAL TO GOLD* - a
film program curated by Florian Wüst (Berlin)


*LIFE ON SCREEN*
A lecture/video presentation by Florian Wüst (Berlin)
Date: 25th of MARCH
Time: 14.00
Location: Dushanbe Art Ground
Address: Str. Aini 31, Dushanbe, Tajikistan (State University of Visual
Arts and Design of Tajikistan)

The lecture gives a short survey of Western video art and its relationship
to mass media: from television to the internet. By showing and discussing a
selection of historical and contemporary videos that make use of the
deconstruction of images and sounds, Florian Wüst will elaborate on the
positioning of the artist in connection to shifting socio-political
realities and change of technologies.

With films and film excerpts by, amongst others, Christoph Doering, Birgit
Hein, Steina Vasulka and Wolf Vostell.


 *FROM COAL TO GOLD*
A film programme curated by Florian Wüst (Berlin)
Date: 26th of MARCH
Time: 14.00
Location: Dushanbe Art Ground
Address: Str. Aini 31, Dushanbe, Tajikistan (State University of Visual
Arts and Design of Tajikistan)

The mining and processing of coal propelled the modernization of life in
the Industrial Age. Today, the coal industry has long declined in many
places, especially in Europe. Nuclear power was praised the energy source
of the future. Industrial production as well moved elsewhere. Countless
Western consumer goods, like computers and mobile phones, are manufactured
in China. After use, they land on dump sites in Africa for recycling. A
sort of reverse, post-colonial mining cycle closes: Young men extract
precious metals from the hazardous waste that once were harvested from the
same African soil. Florian Wüst will present a selection of international
documentary, industrial and experimental films, made between 1910 and 2014,
that address the theme of global resources, labour conditions and
alternative economies in a world that bears the inherent ambiguity of
ongoing technological progress.

*A Day in the Life of a Coal Miner*, Kineto Production Company, United
Kingdom 1910, 9 min
*Kahl*, Haro Senft, West Germany 1961, 12 min
*Coal Spell,* Sun Xun, China 2008, 8 min
*On the Third Planet from the Sun,* Pavel Medvedev, Russia 2006, 31 min
*Lighthouse*, Chi Jang Yin, China/USA 2009, 16 min
*All That Is Solid,* Louis Henderson, France 2014, 16 min


Film descriptions:

*A Day in the Life of a Coal Miner*
Kineto Production Company, United Kingdom 1910, 9 min
Sponsored by L.N.W. Railway, this early silent film provides a picture of
British coal mining at the beginning of the 20th century. Conceived
primarily as an instructional film, it documents the various industrial
processes involved in coal production. Although a male coal miner is seen
leaving and returning to his family at the beginning and end, the film
highlights work mostly done by women above ground at the pit. Whether by
intention or not, through its final scene *A Day in the Life of a Coal
Miner *draws parallels between the hard physical nature of the labour and
the luxury of those who rely on the miners' toil.

*Kahl*
Haro Senft, West Germany 1961, 12 min
Commissioned by AEG (General Electricity Company), Kahl is a documentary
report on the planning and building of the first West German nuclear power
station in Kahl, located on the Main River. Newsreel clips are used to
emphasize the connections between the technical functions of the plant, the
need for electricity, and international politics. Haro Senft's film
displays remarkable mastery in the use of filmic techniques, accompanied by
a musical soundtrack of Hans Posegga. *Kahl* was nominated for an Oscar in
1961, and was awarded at several industrial film festivals.

*Coal Spell*
Sun Xun, China 2008, 8 min
Inspired by a five Yuan RMB note, Coal Spell recounts the rise and fall of
Fuxin, an old industrial coal city located in Northeast China. Huge
smokestacks pierce the sky, clouds of black smoke block thesun. Political
slogans blast away, drowning out any form of curiosity about the outside
world. The city is a tremendous prison where history is boxed in like a
fierce monster, until a screeching Soviet excavator is forced to gouge the
land. Sun Xun's meticulously drawn animation film questions the
relationship of history and power, based on the artist's own experiences
and nostalgia for his upbringing.

Courtesy of the Archive of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.
*On the Third Planet from the Sun*
Pavel Medvedev, Russia 2006, 31 min
Arkhangelsk, a resource-rich region in the North of Russia, is know for the
first gulags and for decades of hydrogen bomb testing. Today, people pick
the debris of the nuclear experiments out of the swamp, then sell the scrap
metal or use it in housekeeping and farming. Pilgrims on their way to
sacred icons suffer greatly from swarms of mosquitoes in the forest. In *On
the Third Planet from the Sun*, Pavel Medvedev extends the boundary of the
creative documentary through a striking visual exploration of environmental
destruction and the rebirth of a community at the margins.

Courtesy of the Archive of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.
*Lighthouse*
Chi Jang Yin, China/USA 2009, 16 min
The district of Guangdong is the largest metropolitan area in one of
China's wealthiest provinces.One of its cities, Guangzhou, attracts farmers
from the countryside looking for factory jobs. Chi Jang Yin portraits
Guangzhou workers on and off work: while assembling  electronic parts at
the conveyor belt, at breaks, during drawing classes or dance sessions in
public space at night. *Lighthouse* reflects on how individualism is
influenced by social and political infrastructures. The poetic images of
the video aim to open borders that separate cultural, linguistic and
historical differences in the global labour system.

Courtesy of Video Data Bank, Chicago.
*All That Is Solid*
Louis Henderson, France 2014, 16 min
All* That Is Solid *exposes the artist's computer desktop where the film is
being edited before the viewer. Layer after layer of video clips, notes and
photographs--taken off Google Image and other internet sources--finally
produce a story: By looking at artisanal gold miners and the world's
greatest dump site for illegally exported obsolete computers from the West
in Ghana, where young men recycle precious metals from the electronic
waste, the video demonstrates how important it is to do away with the
capitalist myth claiming the immateriality of computer technology and
communication.

 B
io

*Fl**orian Wüst* is a visual artist and independent film curator based in
Berlin. His work revolves around the history of post-war Germany and modern
social, economic and technical progress. He has shown film programs at
numerous international venues and festivals, such as the Austrian Film
Museum in Vienna, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Arsenal
- Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlin, or Tate Modern, London. Wüst
frequently writes and lectures about topics related to film and society. In
2011, he co-initiated Haben und Brauchen, an open platform for discussion
and action that advocates for the recognition and preservation of a
self-organized artistic practice which has grown out of the specific urban
conditions and free spaces in Berlin.

 *Florian Wüst's *lecture and film program is part of art residence program
developed by Dushanbe Art Ground kindly supported by Goethe Institute,
Tashkent.



Organizer:

*Dushanbe Art Ground (Public Foundation "Sanati Muosir")* - is a non-profit
organization registered in 2012 in Dushanbe. DAG mission is to advocate for
the development of contemporary art practices in Tajikistan, to redefine
the role of the artist in contemporary society and shift the function of
the artist from mere producer to engaged researcher and critic. DAG
strategy is to achieve long-term sustainable development for new media arts
and new platforms where creative and civic communities could
collaboratively invent alternative avenues for social development and
change. Dushanbe Art Ground activity is supported by Open Society Institute
- Assistance Foundation in Tajikistan and Swiss Cooperation Office,
Tajikistan.







+++++++++++++++++++++

stefan rusu - curator

dushanbe art ground
tel: + 992 935036903
email: suhebator at gmail.com
<http://compose/?mailto=mailto%3asuhebator@gmail.com>
skype: suhebator1
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