The programme presents films about art-activism from: Manchester's reconstruction of Guantanomo bay This is Camp X-Ray; Italian activist tactics in Disobbedienti; corporate pranksters the Yes Men; and the re-enactment of the Battle of Orgreave. The Invisible Object: Art in Social Change, and Ruins from the Future are two films that document socially and politically engaged art practice in Europe. The Atlas Group's archival film I Think it would be better If I Could Weep revealing a fragment of contemporary Lebanese experience, will be screened as a short before selected films. Chain is an exquisitely filmed Ballard-esque story of two young women's relationship to the global culture of the shopping mall and theme park. The programme concludes with Ken McMullen's film of Gustav Metzger, a pioneer of the discourse around art and politics.

Screening Notes

Wednesday 6 April
The Invisible Object: Art in Social Change
Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Italy, 2003, DVCAM, 57'

A journey in search of art as a space to imagine new forms of community, aesthetic, and public space in a changing society. Travelling through Italy, France and Holland Trans:it interviewed contemporary artists that work with the territorial dimensions of culture, public space and identity. With an emphasis on social housing projects the film features: Campement Urbain, Nicolas Bourriaud, Atelier van Lieshout, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Tanja Elstgeest, SMART Project Space, Stalker-ON/Osservatorio Nomade.

Ruins for the Future
(Berlin ñ Belgrade ñ Bucharest ñ Sofia)
Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, 2004, CVCAM, 45'

15 years after the fall of the iron curtain, the 4 cities question and confront their recent past, through the eyes of artists, architects and urban designers: How to come to terms with the urban symbols of one's own history; redesigning the city; new urban geographies; visual transformations, memory and identity. www.transiteurope.org

Thurs 7 April
Battle of Orgreave, Jeremy Deller
Dir. Mike Figgis, UK, DVD. 62:37.
Co-commissioned by Artangel Media and Channel 4.

In 1984 the National Union of Mineworkers went on strike. The dispute lasted for over a year and was the most bitterly fought since the general strike of 1926, marking a turning point in the struggle between the government and the trade union movement. On the 18 June 1984 one of the strike's most violent confrontations began in a field near to the Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire and culminated in a cavalry charge by mounted police through Orgreave village. The film looks at these events through Jeremy Deller's re-enactment of the day. The participants combined members of historical re-enactment societies from all over Britain with local people from the mining communities of South Yorkshire, many of whom were present in 1984.

Friday 8 April
This Is Camp X-Ray, Jai Redman
Dir. Damien Mahoney, UK, 2005, DVD, 73mins.

In 2003 Jai Redman created a fully operational miniature version of the US internment camp at Guantanamo Bay. The film documents the Camp, capturing the reactions of residents, volunteers' experiences and the responses of family members of a Manchester man detained in the real camp.

The Atlas Group is a project established by Walid Raad in 1999 to research and document the contemporary history of Lebanon. They aim is to locate, preserve, study and produce audio, visual, and literary artefacts that shed light in the contemporary history of Lebanon. In this endeavour, they have produced and found several documents including notebooks, films, videotapes, photographs and other objects. These works are organised in an archive, available at www.theatlasgroup.org. The Atlas Group has loaned two single channel screenings to the RISK exhibition:
I think it would be better if I could Weep, Operator #17 will be screened before the main feature on April 8th, 12th and 20th.

Hostage: The Bachar Tapes (Raad (Bachar)), 2000. 18min, is screened in the Mobile Cinema in the RISK exhibition daily 25 March ­ 14 May.

 

Tues 12 April
Atlas Group
I Think it would be better If I Could Weep, Operator #17, 2000.
and
Border Crossing Services
Oliver Krenn & Martin Krenn, Austria, 2001, 51 min, German / English

In this film ñ Martin Krenn and Oliver Ressler take up strands of discussions relevant in both art and politics, acting freely in both fields. Ressler and Krenn have created this propaganda project for the promotion of a progressive concept of migration, but above all, for the specific people and organisations which are dedicated to organising border crossing ñ as a counterweight to the mainstream media's attempts to divert attention away from the intensified enclosure of Schengen Europe. And also as a counter weight against the shift of discourse away from the problem of exclusive citizenship rights to the secondary theme of the individual fates of refugees and the complementary enemy images, and concretely, against the increasing hegemonic politics of denouncing border crossing services as ëtrafficking' and ëslavery'.
(Gerald Raunig)

 

Thurs 14 April
See You in the Next War
Doug Aubrey, Scotland, 2001, 104 mins, DVCAM, English

A documentary feature that tells a story about the war in Yugoslavia from the perspective of the staff, friends and listeners of the rebel radio station, Belgrade radio B92. It's a chemical generation war story about life, death and survival in between an oppressive regime and the bombs of NATO. A portrait of the lives of a generation who grew up, fought, resisted and simply survived a decade of war in the Balkans. A generation who fully embraced the punk and DIY ethos and who refused to be bullied either by an oppressive regime, or by the international community. This is the real-life story about the listeners, friends and DJ's of anti-government and anti-NATO rebel radio station B92 in Belgrade. And adding intrigue to this tale is the fact that an American feature film is currently in the pipeline about the same subject. Based on Matt Collin's book: Serbia Calling , it will feature fictionalised versions of some of the characters featured in Aubrey's exciting guerrilla-feature.

Fri 15 April
Victim of Geography
Doug Aubrey, Scotland, 1999, 100mins, DVCAM, English.

From Sarajevo, Bosnia, to Cape Wrath, Scotland is approximately 3,000 kms

This is a film about some of themÖ. Based on a road-trip from the centre of a vortex (war-torn Sarajevo) to the edge of an abyss (Cape Wrath at Scotland's most northerly tip), Victim of Geography redefined the creative documentary form/road movie genre for a pre-millennium/ techno-tuned in and turned on audience. Visually rich and multi-textured, Victim of Geography is a documentary ëpostcard from the edge' that shoots from the hip and crosses the political geography, time and territory of Europe, in the company of the sad, mad, lost, rebellious and dangerous to know.

Wed 20 April
Atlas Group
I Think it would be better If I Could Weep, Operator #17, 2000.
and
Disobbedienti,
Oliver Ressler & Dario Azzellini,
54min, Italian/Eng/German., 2002.

The video thematizes the Disobbedienti's origins, political bases, and forms of direct action on the basis of conversations with seven members of the movement. The Disobbedienti emerged from the Tute Bianche during the demonstrations against the G8 Summitt in Genoa in July 2001. The ìTute Biancheî were white-clad Italian Activists who used their bodies ñ protected by foam rubber, tires, helmets, gas masks and homemade shields ñ in direct acts and demonstrations as weapons of civil disobedience. At the G8 Summit in Genoa the Tute Bianche decided to take off their trademark white overalls that had given them their name and instead blend with the multitude of 300,000 demonstrators. The transition from the Tute Bianche to the Disobbediente, the disobedients, also marked a development from ìcivil disobedienceî to ìsocial disobedienceî. Luca Casarini describes the Tute Bianche as a subjective experience and a small army, whereas Disobbedienti is a multitude and a movement.

Thur 21 April
The Yes Men,
USA, 85mins, Chris Smith / Dan Ollman / Sarah Price

The Yes Men, a movie, follows a couple of anti-corporate activist-pranksters as they impersonate World Trade Organization spokesmen on TV and at business conferences around the world. The story follows Andy and Mike from their beginnings with GWBush.com , and on to their tasteless parody of the WTO's website . Some visitors don't notice the site is a fake, and send speaking invitations meant for the real WTO. Mike and Andy play along with the ruse and soon find themselves attending important functions as WTO representatives.

Delighted to speak for the organization they oppose, Andy and Mike don thrift-store suits and set out to shock their unwitting audiences with darkly comic satires on global free trade. Weirdly, the experts don't notice the joke and seem to agree with every terrible idea the two can come up with.

Wed 27 April
CHAIN, Jem Cohen,
USA, 2004, 99 mins, 16mm/video

As corporate culture homogenizes our surroundings, it's increasingly hard to tell where you are. In Chain malls, theme parks, hotels and corporate centres worldwide are joined into one monolithic super-landscape that shapes the lives of two women caught within it; a corporate businesswoman researches the theme park industry; the other, a young drifter, lives and works illegally on the fringes of a shopping mall. Hauntingly Ballard-esque and exquisitely filmed.

Thur 28 April
Pioneers in Art and Science: Gustav Metzger
Ken McMullen, UK, 2004.

The scale of Gustav Metzger's achievements and his contribution to contemporary culture are clearly demonstrated in Ken McMullen's film. Metzger speaks candidly and brilliantly of the influences which have shaped both his own work and culture of our time. From Freud to Vermeer, from Nazi design to the importance of drawing and a far-reaching discussion about auto-destructive art. Metzger gives profound insights into the meaning and relevance of art, as well as highlighting the importance of understanding the destructive impulses in human society. Fusing art with politics and social activism, Metzger was a co-founder with Bertrand Russell of the Committee of 100, the anti-war protest group. He convened the legendary Destruction in Art Symposium in 1966, and proposed the first Art Strike in 1974.