The Square is a satirical comedy that explores the hypocrisy and absurdity of the art world. Christian, the museum's artistic director, is preparing for an upcoming exhibition called 'The Square', which aims to promote altruism and trust. However, his own behavior contradicts the values he preaches, leading to a series of awkward and hilarious situations. As Christian's life spirals out of control, he is forced to confront his own hypocrisy and the true meaning of art.
In this humorous animated short film, a man attempts to hook up his home theater system but encounters various obstacles and challenges along the way. With slapstick comedy and goofy characters, the film showcases the struggles of modern technology and consumer electronics.
Rivers and Tides explores the creative process of renowned artist Andy Goldsworthy as he uses natural materials to create stunning installations in the landscape. The film takes us on a journey through Nova Scotia, Canada, Scotland, and Provence, showcasing Goldsworthy's unique sculptures made from clay, stone, wool, and other organic materials. It delves into his deep connection with nature, capturing the beauty of rivers, tides, rainbows, and the changing seasons. Through intimate interviews and breathtaking cinematography, Rivers and Tides invites us to see the world through the eyes of a visionary artist.
Cremaster 3 is a surreal and abstract art film set in New York City. It delves into themes of freemasonry, undead, and torture. The movie showcases the Cremaster Cycle, with references to the Guggenheim Foundation and contemporary art. A hidden gem known for its unique aesthetic and video installations.
"If buildings could talk, what would they say about us?" CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE offers six startling responses. This 3D film project about the soul of buildings allows six iconic and very different buildings to speak for themselves, examining human life from the unblinking perspective of a manmade structure. Six acclaimed filmmakers bring their own visual style and artistic approach to the project. Buildings, they show us, are material manifestations of human thought and action: the Berlin Philharmonic, an icon of modernity; the National Library of Russia, a kingdom of thoughts; Halden Prison, the world's most humane prison; the Salk Institute, an institute for breakthrough science; the Oslo Opera House, a futuristic symbiosis of art and life; and the Centre Pompidou, a modern culture machine. CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE explores how each of these landmarks reflects our culture and guards our collective memory.
The decision to move to Holland doesn't sound like a wise idea. Why move to a country that could be flooded at any moment? For the last 25 years, the political climate has shifted. The public debate on migration has become harsher, more heated, and polarized. What would have been considered right-wing xenophobia back then, is now considered mainstream. Populists simplify complex realities into good and evil, victims and perpetrators: ‘us’ versus ‘them’. Their rhetoric often consists of dehumanizing words and metaphors. One of these is ‘water’. In reality, water is not an immediate threat to the average Dutch person; but it is a huge threat to the thousands trying to reach the Netherlands. People trying to survive the Mediterranean Sea in rubber boats. Trying to survive winter on the Aegean coast in primitive tents. To them, water really is deadly.
Falling Frames is the first fragment of a series in which Langkamp explores the framing and visualization of three-dimensional perspective through the two-dimensional medium of video, both technically as well as conceptually. To record the work, a special device was built that's attached to a tall industrial crane, which contains a stack of wooden picture frames that can be released from a height of ten to fifteen meters. The camera is placed right in the center of the action and captures the frames' movement while they fall down. The slow motion recording of 240 still frames per second allows us to experience every millimeter of movement to the very detail. While the frames get smaller and smaller in perspective as they move further away from our view, they are immediately followed by the next frame and the next one, until they've all reached the floor and found a place to rest.
Ilya Kabakov is considered one of the most important contemporary artists worldwide. Born and raised in the Ukraine in the period between Stalin and Gorbatschow he left the country in the 80s. In his Installations and his numerous paintings Kabakov creates a world of its own, which leaves the heaviness of socialist and post-socialist life far behind. The film links Ilya Kabakovs artistic spaces with insights into Russian everyday life, which itself sometimes appears like an installation by the artist.
Featuring breathtaking set pieces, this immersive documentary portrait delves into the fantastical world of artist Gui Taccetti, whose deeply personal work channels the anxiety of growing up gay in staunchly Catholic Brazil.
"Ummmi’s Lonely Girl features a young Shibuya girl, sometimes she messes things up, sometimes she is sad or depressed but she lives her life for the fun moments. In these moments she can forget everything which has come before her in life. She needs these moments to keep her going. In constructing this work I tried to embracing the feeling of the fluctuating heart, bouncing between happiness and sadness. Playing with the stereotypes of youth culture, such as loneliness, and a life of excess, I carried this drunk girl from my parents apartment on edge of Shibuya, to Shibuya Station to wait for the first train home. This is a performance archive video." -UMMMI.
Each pixel is separated like an exploded screen, set in a chaotic way into the space. The video has a whole movement in the room, as one three dimensional image. The experience resembles the brain, working with electromagnetic waves and low voltage information.
Workingman's Death is a documentary that provides a glimpse into the extreme working conditions and hardships faced by working-class individuals in different regions. Through powerful visuals and narratives, it highlights the desolation, poverty, and struggles encountered by workers in industries such as coal mining, illegal mining, shipbreaking, and more.
"Marking Infinity", Lee Ufan's recent retrospective exhibition at the Guggenheim charts the artist's creation of a visual, conceptual, and theoretical language that has radically expanded the possibilities for sculpture and painting over the past forty years. Deeply versed in modern philosophy, Lee is also an influential writer and is recognized as the key theorist of Mono-ha, an anti-formalist, materials-based art movement that developed in Tokyo in the late 1960s. Active internationally over the last four decades, Lee is acclaimed for an innovative body of Post-Minimalist work that promotes process and the experiential engagement of viewer and site.
For his five Cremaster films Matthew Barney's created a multitude of sculptural forms and structures. Recently both the sculptures and the films traveled to museums in Cologne, Paris and New York's Guggenheim. In THE CREMASTER CYCLE: A Conversation with Matthew Barney, the artist guides the camera through this remarkable creation at the Guggenheim Museum while being questioned by Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic of the New York Times.
Edgar decides to do a home plumbing job himself.
An exploration of how the U.S. military employs video game technology to train troops for war. Three Dead depicts a military exercise within a mock Iraqi town built on the outskirts of Twentynine Palms, California, blurring the line between computer simulation and reality.
“Christo: Works in Progress” takes us around the world on a showcase of the artist’s grand environmental installations. With both critique and praise from members of the communities that have hosted Christo and his works, the film takes a deep look into the process and outcome of pieces such as Wrapped Coast, Running Fence, and Wrapped Walkways. While discussing his inspirations and motives, Christo states, “The work of art is not the fabric, steel poles and cable, the work of art is the hills and the ocean, the sky, the gates, the rocks, the people, the light- this is the work of art.” (Christo Vladimirov Javacheff) Though his work may appear to be visually distracting from the landscapes he creates in, Christo’s aim is to bring attention to the land itself and encourage people to take note of their surroundings.
An exploration of how the U.S. military employs video game technology to train troops for war. In A Sun With No Shadow, Farocki calls attention to the subtle differences between the simulations for combat training and PTSD. With the former, the sun can be programmed to cast shadows in the virtual combat zones, while the latter, less expensive technology does not offer this feature.
By becoming aware of an idea that is new to us, we talk about it all the time. And beyond that, all the subjects that we approach, we approach them through this new prism. We are going as far as proselytism - essentially to convince ourselves. We repeat the same words, slightly reformulated, until we are convinced. It is a way of swallowing our conditioning to this idea, while hinting that we are already sure. In politics or in love. We repeat ourselves. We repeat ourselves. We repeat ourselves.