Talk and screening with Gilbert & George

In September, the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi dedicates two evenings to Gilbert & George, including films and a talk in the presence of the two artists.

The appointments are part of a cycle of talks, screenings and performances dedicated to the question of identity, the theme at the heart of the collective exhibition Dancing with Myself, which includes pictures by Gilbert & George coming from the Pinault Collection. Curated by Martin Bethenod and Florian Ebner, Dancing with Myself is presented at Punta della Dogana, Venice, until Sunday, December 16, 2018.

Gilbert & George are renowned for presenting themselves as “living sculptures,” fusing their art and identity with the external world. On Wednesday September 26, the emblematic films The Singing Sculpture (1991, 20 min) and The World of Gilbert & George (1981, 69’) will be screened from 8pm.

On the following day at 6:30pm, the artists Gilbert & George will discuss the most significant steps of their career with art critic François Jonquet, author of Gilbert & George. Intimate Conversations with François Jonquet (London, 2005; Paris, 2016). 

The Singing Scultpure (1991, 20 min) by Philip Haas
Conventionally dressed but with their faces and hands covered in multi-colour metallic powder, in the Sonnabend Gallery, Gilbert & George stand on a table, sing and move together with a tape recording of “Underneath the Arches,” a song by British duo Flanagan and Allen, popular during World War II. The film intercuts the robotic sculpture the artists form as it sings and turns on the small table with passport photo-like shots of Gilbert & George talking about their art.

The presentation of The Singing Scultpure, and the film documenting it in 1991, marked the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Sonnabend Gallery in New York.

The World of Gilbert & George (1981, 69 min) by Gilbert & George
In The World of Gilbert & George, a feature length film, the artists explore our modern urban world, powerfully evoking the desires and tensions of the modern human person with death, hope, life, fear, sex, money, race, religion. Poetic narration combines with vivid imagery that moves between the startlingly beautiful, the painful and the joyness in all of our lives. Church spires and city streets, youths and drunks, dancing and tea drinking all take on an affecting symbolism when viewed from the unique perspective of Gilbert & George.

Entrance to the screenings and to the artist’s talk is free until capacity is reached.

From September to December, many more appointments dedicated to the current exhibitions Dancing with Myself and Albert Oehlen. Cows by the Water will take place at Palazzo Grassi, Punta della Dogana and at the Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Italy. These include a performance by Prinz Gholam, talks with curators Mark Godfrey and Jean-Pierre Criqui, choreographer Romeo Castellucci, and with the curators of the Cruising Pavilion in Venice, concerts by Steamboat Switzerland and Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love, as well as screenings dedicated to gender, sexual identity and the new representations of the body.