Open Archive Abbotsford
97 Nicholson Street Abbotsford
Melbourne, Australia

7pm November 30, 2011

Orginally screened at Lost and Found, Amsterdam’s long-running night of cultural oddities, video and storytelling hosted at the Theatrum Anatomicum.

http://limboland.tv/kunst/het-beste-van-lost-found/larry-emdurs-suit

Three days in a cinema to pick the brain of Mike Figgis, director, artist and musician. Sugar and cocaine. Digital and celluloid. Grain and focus. Portrait and landscape. Hollywood and independence. Script-writing and score notation. Bullshit and real bullshit. Theatre and self-obsession.  Pornography and J.L. Godard.

Brilliant, real and inspiring.

http://www.mikefiggis.co.uk

Thanks to Janine Dijkmeijer at Cinedans.nl

BUSH “BUSHMAN COMETH” DOOF this Saturday night (00:00-02:00) in Amsterdam.

Last ever party in the current location of the Service Garage.

http://www.deservicegarage.nl

http://www.bushdoof.eu

REVISIT EXQUISIT
Duo-tentoonstelling Kaleb de Groot & Roosje Klap
(laatste tentoonstelling op de huidige locatie van de Service Garage)

Opening: zaterdag 29 mei, 20:00 uur Muziek: Nathalie Bruys & Emile Zile
Geopend: 29 mei t/m 20 juni, woensdag t/m zondag 12:00-18:00
Finissage: zondag 20 juni

Dafna Maimon’s take on arts industry workers, recent art school graduates, art guards and the dreams and fears of the people at the frontline of cultural institutions. The protagonists use black parcan theatre lights on mic stands to frame their monologues. A white light too strong. Lights. Camera. Action.The repetitious scenes were almost nausea inducing in their hammy under/overacted delivery. Exquisitely bland dialogue, sometimes directed to audience members or the unwitting gallery visitor who becomes part of the narrative. Tiny, intoxicating scenes that would be repeated over the course of an hour.

Inane moving of lights. Incessant moving of the framing devices. The power a directed light has to focus energy and create an immediate stage is profound. The spotlight gives license to the characters to deliver lines in much the same way that social networking platforms or micro-blogging services gives licence to transmit little traumas, everyday desires and narcissistic impulses. These individuals prepare their monologues for the amorphous mass, one liners that are both media-conscious and personal. They recite language to the ether, not a directed conversational language, but a never-ending stream of quotes, self-critical comments and weak commands. The dialogue of mediated individualism. I felt we were trapped in the lucid daydreaming IM chats of bored gallery sitters and wannabe curators.

Melodramatic pauses and romantic dialogue interspersed with asides to the audience “If this was a film I would be shot over the shoulder in medium close-up”. Characters moving in highly artificial arcs. The pacing is drawn out and gives ample room for slippage, coincidences and accidents. A character sighs and delivers a highly breathy and despairing “Help. The website is stuck again”. This is anti-depressant operatic tragedy set to the scale of 21st century comment culture.

09/01/10. W139, Warmoesstraat 139, Amsterdam

Directed by Dafna Maimon

Performers: Anu Vahtra, Lot Meijers, Steven de Jong, Timothy Moore

http://www.dafnamaimon.com
http://www.w139.nl

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QAfTV97vdfU

http://www.steim.org/STEIMBLOG/?p=871

the brutal immediacy of the voice, the ability it has to inspire fleeting recollections of forgotten characters

it’s animalistic sonic attack, the elemental nature of a cry

inherently humorous and intimate

both performers began their solo sets with renditions of dada and futurist sound poems from their respective countries, the transportation of voices through epochs… return to the voice, to the first and last gasp, the formless expulsion of air and communication

Documentation of the live video and orchestra performance, March 21 at World Music and Dance Center in Rotterdam.

http://www.wmdc.nl/engels/program/content/Archive/2009/1809.php

https://youtube.com/watch?v=spWsixjmKXo

A late upload following recent activity, travel and shows. I found some time to go through a pile of  unlabelled documentation dv tape from recent trips. Two performances included here, Marclay’s ‘Screenplay’ videoscore and Mengbo’s performative quake mod ‘Q2008’, recorded on hot, humid nights during last year’s E-Arts festival in Shanghai. These were highly enjoyable public open air concerts with grandparents, kids and media art enthusiasts congregating in the corner of a large public park, I have written about it in more detail here https://emilezile.com/?p=93

http://www.shearts.org/index.php/?page_id=18

A giant of the Japanese impro scene, Otomo Yoshihide is performing at Steim Amsterdam this Sunday afternoon. The man behind a plethora of solo releases and the phenomenal collaborations I.S.O. and Ground-Zero. Performing solo and duo with Dj Sniff. Tip: get there early it will be packed.

http://www.steim.org