Gregory Markopoulos
Date: 7 March 2008 | Season: Gregory Markopoulos 2008 | Tags: Gregory Markopoulos, Markopoulos
GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS
7—8 March 2008
London Tate Modern
Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928–1992) was a key figure in the evolution of the New American Cinema of the 1960s, an archetypal personal filmmaker who counted Jack Smith, Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage and Maya Deren amongst his contemporaries. His ravishing films are a complex combination of masterful camerawork and editing with a strong vision rooted in myth and poetry.
As his reputation reach its peak, Markopoulos rejected the independent film movement and relocated from New York to Europe in 1967. There, he planned the construction of an archive and projection space – The Temenos – on a remote site in the Greek countryside, a setting that would be in harmony with his extraordinary films.
In his later years, he meticulously edited his life’s work, incorporating over 100 individual titles, into an 80-hour long silent film for presentation only at his chosen location in Arcadia. Since Markopoulos’ death in 1992, the filmmaker Robert Beavers (himself the subject of a Tate Modern retrospective in February 2007) has been working towards the final printing and exhibition of this unique work. The screenings of the first two sections (“orders”) of ENIAIOS took place in 2004 and were commemorated in articles in Artforum, Frieze and Film Comment.
PORTRAITS OF ARTISTS: Friday 7 March 2008
THE ILLIAC PASSION: Saturday 8 March 2008
This rare opportunity to view a selection of Markopoulos’ films in London anticipates TEMENOS 2008; the free, open-air premieres of ENIAIOS III-V that will take place close to the village of Lyssaraia on 27-29 June 2008.
The Tate Modern screenings are curated by Stuart Comer and Mark Webber, and will be introduced by Robert Beavers.