As part of the XLVII Biennale of Venice - Visual Arts section, 9 short films by as many artists are presented, including the world premiere of a section from Matthew Barney's new film Cremaster 5.
Loco-Motion, i.e. moving place. Symbolical places that move from one thought to another, from one look to the next. The idea for this project came from the feeling that what we have today is no longer moving images as different places that move around the images. Our look constantly moves over reality like a scanner. The constant shifting of ideas gives the world this constant feeling of displacement. Even the fastest images end up looking still.
"The short films presented by Loco-Motion lack the obsessive concern with updating one's own sign system to reflect that of cinema. They lack the feeling of inferiority that pushes artists to turn contemporary art into sheer fun or entertainment. The only purpose of these films - and to me it seems no small purpose - is to let our look move through an idea with the help of images, using narration as the pretext to achieve a global vision of the fragment of reality each artist has chosen to explore. We could say that, in the end, all of these films turn into a single, static image, like a landscape - whose ultimate purpose is to let itself be looked at, scanned. Just as the authors examine different pieces of reality, imaginary or symbolical, spectators, too, are given the same opportunity. However, it is important to remark another distinction: these works are not experimental films or video art, but complete works, whose internal structure remains narrative. In short, what we have is a story that does not keep pace with the images, but interlaces with them, in such a way as to create a single plot, which is not easy to narrate outside the screen". (Francesco Bonami)
Exhibited artists
Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Matthew Barney, Nick Decampo, Sharon Lockhart, Tracey Moffatt, Johannes Stjärne Nilsson, Philippe Parreno, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Carsten Höller, Roberta Torre, T.J. Wilcox
Other venues
Les Rencontres de la Photographie d'Arles
July 7-8 1998
