If I Can’t Dance presents world premiere of
Wendelien van Oldenborgh’s film Bete & Deise
Friday, 27 January 2012, 8pm
International Film Festival Rotterdam
‘Spectrum: Shorts’ film programme
Venue: WORM
Boomgaardsstraat 71, Rotterdam
www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com
www.worm.org
Special premiere night programme:
with a screening of Câncer (Glauber Rocha, 1972, 86 min); the premiere of Bete & Deise
(Wendelien van Oldenborgh, 2011); a response from Eric de Bruyn, followed by a Q&A with Wendelien van Oldenborgh; and a concert by Deise Tigrona and Baba Electronica & DJ Lonely, and DJ’s Marfox and Nervoso
On Friday 27 January 2012, as part of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, If I Can’t Dance presents the world premiere of Wendelien van Oldenborgh’s film Bete & Deise at WORM in Rotterdam. The premiere will be festively celebrated with an all-night programme inspired by the production of Bete & Deise and van Oldenborgh’s ongoing research into Brazilian cinema. Art historian and writer Eric de Bruyn has been invited to respond to the new film and to lead an after talk with Van Oldenborgh. The programme also includes a Baile funk concert by Deise Tigrona, one of the protagonists in the new film, accompanied by Baba Electronica & DJ Lonely, and DJs Marfox and Nervoso. A screening of the film Câncer by Glauber Rocha opens the evening, with an introduction by van Oldenborgh.
Bete & Deise
In van Oldenborgh’s new film Bete & Deise, two women encounter each other in a building under construction in Rio de Janeiro. Bete Mendes and Deise Tigrona have—each in their own way—given meaning to the idea of a public voice.
Bete Mendes (1949) has continued to maintain a political career alongside her acting career in popular television since the 1960s. Mendes was involved in the armed resistance group of the student movement against the dictatorship, and was part of the labour movement in the 1970s, co-founding the working party Partido dos Trabalhadores at the close of the decade. Up until today she has fulfilled several public functions whilst at the same time remaining active as a telenovela actress, known for her appearances in Beto Rockfeller (1967); O Rebu (1974); O Rei do Gado (1996); Caras e Bocas (2009) and many others.
Deise Tigrona (1979) is one of the most powerful voices in the Funk Carioca movement today. Growing up and performing as a singer in the impoverished community of Cidade de Deus, she rose to great international popularity with her music in 2005. The public life that came with fame made it difficult to concentrate on family life, and led to the decision to take a step back from her music career and return to a job closer to home. She has recently started performing again.
Together these women talk about the use of their voice and their positions in the public sphere, allowing for the contradictions they each carry within themselves to surface. Through a montage that evocatively combines the voices of the women with their image, van Oldenborgh confronts us with considerations on the relation between cultural production and politics and the potential power that is generated when the public intersects with the personal.
Bete & Deise is the final work in a triptych that includes Après La Reprise, la Prise (2009) and Pertinho de Alphaville (2010). All works have come from a research into current changes in labour conditions and the shift towards affective labour—in which elements of performance are increasingly incorporated—as well as changes in our understanding of the collective and the public voice and the role of cultural production in this. A prologue to the new work, Supposing I love you. And you also love me, was recently presented at the 54th Venice Biennal in the exhibition ‘Speech Matters’ of the Danish Pavilion, co-commissioned by If I Can’t Dance. As part of the research for Bete & Deise, van Oldenborgh curated the symposium Cinema – this, Television – that in collaboration with If I Can’t Dance, on 29 March 2011 as part of the Studium Generale programme of the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
Wendelien van Oldenborgh
Wendelien van Oldenborgh is an artist based in Rotterdam whose practice explores social relations through an investigation of gesture in the public sphere. Van Oldenborgh has recently participated in the Venice Biennial 2011; the 4th Moscow Biennial 2011; the 29th São Paulo Biennial 2010; and the 11th Istanbul Biennial 2009. In the last years her work has been exhibited at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Generali Foundation, Vienna; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; M HKA Antwerp; A-Space Gallery, Toronto; Art Sheffield 2010; ICA, London; and the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. For the academic year 2009/2010 she was guest professor for Kunst und Kommunikatieve Praxis in the Universität für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna and she is currently lecturer on the Artistic Research master programme at the KABK in The Hague. Van Oldenborgh was recently awarded the Hendrik Chabot Prize for visual arts 2011 from the Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds.
Wendelien van Oldenborgh is one of the five artists commissioned by If I Can’t Dance to make a new work as part of Edition IV – Affect (2010-2012). The other artists are Jeremiah Day, Sung Hwan Kim, Hito Steyerl and Emily Wardill.
Partners
Bete & Deise is commissioned by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, and is financially supported by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture and Wilfried Lentz Gallery, Rotterdam. With thanks to Capacete Entretenimentos, Rio de Janeiro, and WORM Rotterdam.
If I Can’t Dance’s programme is financially supported by the Mondriaan Foundation, the Culture Programme of the European Union, the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, and the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.
If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution
If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution is an association dedicated to exploring the evolution and typology of performance and performativity in contemporary art. From its headquarters in Amsterdam, If I Can’t Dance develops art works and thematic programmes with artists, curators and researchers on the basis of long term collaborations, and presents these projects at (inter)national venues. Website: www.ificantdance.org
