Online Symposium
September 17–19, 2021
With presentations by Erika Balsom, Teresa Castro, Sophie Cavoulacos, Ali Cherri, Greg de Cuir Jr, Irmgard Emmelhainz, Lars Henrik Gass, Leo Goldsmith, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Olivier Hadouchi, Louis Henderson, Chrissie Iles, Karrabing Film Collective, Toby Lee, Almudena Escobar López, Pedro Neves Marques, Alison Nguyen, Noncitizen, Bahar Noorizadeh, Christina Phoebe and Lauretta Macauley, Raqs Media Collective, Rojava Film Commune, Oleksiy Radynski, Julian Ross, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus, Su Yu Hsin, Malena Szlam, Anton Vidokle, and Yang Beichen
“An other cinema” (Raymond Bellour), “othered cinema” (Erika Balsom), “artists’ films” (Maeve Connolly, among others), “cinema d’exposition” (Jean- Christophe Royoux), “le temps exposé” (Dominique Païni)—these are just a few of many terms commonly employed to define ubiquitous practices of artists making films and/or exhibiting them in galleries, museums, and cinemas.
This symposium aims to address the current state of the moving image in relation to developing digital technologies and their infrastructures, the economies of contemporary art, the (post-)pandemic situation of curation, exposition, and distribution of artists’ films, the changing landscape for their perception and reception, and finally, the current sociopolitical and ecological concerns moving-image practitioners are addressing in their works situated between worlds of cinema and contemporary art. Instead of re-establishing or re-activating some grand theories, the symposium asks specific questions. Six panels comprised of artists, theorists, critics, and curators will explore topical concerns about moving images in/and alongside contemporary art.
The State of the Moving Image takes place Friday–Sunday, September 17–19, 2021 on e-flux Video & Film, and is curated by Lukas Brasiskis.
The symposium is organized in conjuction with the online screening program An Other Cinema: Apparatus and Histories, streaming on e-flux Video & Film through September 20.
Symposium program
Livestream and chat on e-flux.com/live
Friday, September 17, 2021
12pm–2pm EST
Panel 1: “In Between White Cube, Black Box, and Online Screens: Curation and Exhibition of Artists’ Films”
With: Erika Balsom (moderator), Sophie Cavoulacos, Lars Henrik Gass, Chrissie Iles, Almudena Escobar López, Julian Ross, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus
What are the main challenges faced by programmers and curators of artists’ films working in between the black box and white cube? How has moving-image curation and exhibition altered during the pandemic? What is the socio-political responsibility of the artists’ film curator working between traditional and emerging dispositifs? Distribution and exposition of moving images situated between cinema and contemporary art, migration of images to the online space during and after the pandemic, as well as challenges and potentials of the new post-pandemic times will be discussed in this panel composed of film programmers and curators.
Saturday, September 18, 2021
10am–12pm EST
Panel 2: “Altering Visuality: Digital Image and Technopolitics”
With: Irmgard Emmelhainz (moderator), Bahar Noorizadeh, Raqs Media Collective, Yang Beichen
How do technological shifts and the digital vernacular impact artists’ filmmaking, and in what ways do moving-image artists investigate and question mechanisms of control? This panel addresses the new language through which artists explore altering technologies of visualization of the world, in order to provide a counter-knowledge and open new venues for imagination and cognition. Strategies of visualization, including vertical/drone imagery, audiovisual and media surveillance, geoscanning, and digital simulations will be discussed as tools for both, exercising state and corporate power, and undermining principles of control. The biopolitical and epistemological functions of new technologies will be addressed in regard to truth-claims and political critique embedded into artists’ films.
12:30pm–2:30pm EST
Panel 3: “Moving-Image Activism and Disobedience on Screen”
With: Olivier Hadouchi (moderator), Karrabing Film Collective member Elizabeth A. Povinnelli, Noncitizenmembers Amina Khalil and Christian Rossipal, Rojava Film Commune member Sevinaz Evdike
What role does moving-image production play in activism and what does filmic disobedience look like? This panel focuses on contemporary forms of counter-filmmaking, images produced during political uprisings, and how film can become a tool for organizing, educating, and decolonizing.
3pm–5pm EST
Panel 4: “Archival Impulse: Appropriation and Critique”
With: Leo Goldsmith (moderator), Greg de Cuir Jr, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Alison Nguyen
How to sustain the critical potential of the recycling and appropriation of the moving-image archive in the digital age? This panel will address artistic re-use of various archives as well as practices of appropriation and sampling of the cinematic past as critique in works by contemporary artists.
Sunday, September 19, 2021
10am–12pm EST
Panel 5: “Collectivity and Care: Moving-Image Art as Public Arena”
With: Toby Lee (moderator), Louis Henderson, Christina Phoebe and Lauretta Macauley, Oleksiy Radynski
How does filmmaking activate communities of support, and what is needed to democratize moving-image production and exhibition? The participants of this panel discuss film production and distribution as a collective and collaborative practice, considering filmmaking as a public arena.
12.30pm–2.30pm EST
Panel 6: “Eco-Futures and Moving Image”
With: Teresa Castro (moderator), Ali Cherri, Pedro Neves Marques, Su Yu Hsin, Malena Szlam, Anton Vidokle
How do artists approach the looming environmental crisis? What is the future of the moving image in regard to environmental concerns? This panel will approach representations of the future in artists’ films focusing on eco-conscious and eco-critical practices and their history, as well as on Anthropocene visuality and anthropogenic thinking embedded in digital technologies.
For more information, contact program [at] e-flux.com.
