Reopens in a new space in Central London with
The Otolith Group:
A Long Time Between Suns
9 September – 24 October 2009
63 Penfold Street
London NW8 8PQ
The Showroom reopens on 8 September in a new 3000 square foot venue on Penfold Street in Central London, designed by ifau and Jesko Fezer, Berlin, and Working Architecture Group, London.
Under the direction of Emily Pethick, the new Showroom offers an ambitious expanded programme that will continue its focus on supporting the production of challenging new work with an emphasis on exploring discursive and process-based practices, collaborative and cross-disciplinary approaches, forms of research, and projects that are situated in the public realm, including a regular seminar series organised in collaboration with Afterall journal.
Opening exhibition: The Otolith Group, A Long Time Between Suns (Part II)
The Showroom opens with the second part of The Otolith Group’s first solo exhibition in London, A Long Time Between Suns. Following the first instalment at Gasworks (February 2009), Part II premieres The Otolith Group’s new film Otolith III (HD, colour, sound, 45 mins, 2009).
Informed by Satyajit Ray’s unmade film The Alien (1967) and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Appunti per un film sull’India (1968), Otolith III replays Ray’s unrealised science fiction as a series of competing past potential futures. As with Part I at Gasworks, it will be situated in an installation conceived and designed by Will Holder. Otolith III is accompanied by Otolith Timeline (video, colour, 30 minutes, 2003) which situates The Otolith Trilogy in a speculative history of the 20th and 21st Century. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of events, including discussions with filmmaker Eyal Sivan and Bidoun magazine.
A new book, A Long Time Between Suns, has been edited as an archival assemblage that links the two stages of the exhibition, designed by Will Holder. It contains an extensive conversation with the artists and new texts by Diana McCarty, Jean Matthee and TJ Demos. During the exhibition, areas of The Showroom’s space will be configured to facilitate the book’s production. A Long Time Between Suns will be published by Sternberg Press in collaboration with The Showroom and Gasworks, London, If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, Amsterdam, MACBA, Barcelona, and Fondazione Galleria Civica – Centro di Ricerca sulla Contemporaneità di Trento.
The Otolith Group was formed in 2002 by London-based artists Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar. Their works include films Otolith I (2003), Otolith II (2007), Nervus Rerum (2008), Inner Time of Television (2007), the curation of The Ghosts of Songs: The Film Art of The Black Audio Collective, exhibited at FACT, Liverpool and Arnolfini, Bristol in 2007, and the co-curation of Three Early Films: Harun Farocki at Cubitt (2009) and Against What? Against Whom? (2009) in collaboration with Tate Modern and Raven Row (2009). Otolith III (2009) is co-produced by The Showroom, Gasworks and Il Trifoglio Nero, Genoa, and is supported by Film London.
Will Holder is a designer and writer based in London. He recently curated ‘Talk Show’ at the ICA, and is editor of FR DAVID, published by de Appel, Amsterdam.
The Otolith Group, A Long Time Between Suns (Part II)
9 September – 24 October 2009
Opening Tuesday 8 September 2009, 6 – 9pm
Opening hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm,Otolith III will be screened on the hour and at 6.30pm, 8pm on the opening
Events:
22 September: In the Court of the Image: Discussion with Eyal Sivan.
3 October: Seminar with The Otolith Group, organised with Afterall
17 October: Conversation between The Otolith Group and Bidoun magazine
25 October: Launch of the film screening series Images Sometimes Tremble: Encounters with Durational Cinema with Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel (270 min, 2004) by Eyal Sivan and Michele Khleifi
For more information please visit: www.theshowroom.org
A Long Time Between Suns (Part II) is supported by Arts Council England, Outset, Film London, and the members of The Showroom’s Supporters Scheme.
The Showroom
63 Penfold Street
London NW8 8PQ
