Date: 21 October 2012 | Season: London Film Festival 2012 | Tags: London Film Festival, Peter Kubelka
PETER KUBELKA PRESENTS MONUMENT FILM
Sunday 21 October 2012, at 2pm
London BFI Southbank NFT 1
Peter Kubelka, Monument Film, Austria, 2012, c.90 min (lecture screening)
The Austrian filmmaker Peter Kubelka has been a vital and uncompromising force in cinema for more than half a century. In a body of work that lasts not much more than an hour in total, he condenses and articulates the essential qualities of analogue cinema, distinguishing film as an autonomous artform. His 1960 film Arnulf Rainer, composed only of the purest elements of light and darkness, sound and silence, remains one of the most radical achievements in film history. In 2012, his new work Antiphon – in equal terms a response to that earlier film and a testament to the entire medium – will be revealed in a unique lecture screening. With 35mm projectors situated in the auditorium, each film will be screened individually, then combined as double projections, both side-by-side and superimposed upon each other. Throughout the event, Kubelka will explicate his theories, communicating his enthusiasm for cinema, and the differences between film and digital media.
Please Note: The projection of Monument Film was unfortunately cancelled due to technical problems. Peter Kubelka presented a verbal lecture on this occasion, and the complete event was rescheduled for Tuesday 9 April 2013.
PROGRAMME NOTES
PETER KUBELKA PRESENTS MONUMENT FILM
Sunday 21 October 2012, at 2pm
London BFI Southbank NFT 1
I am announcing a new film ANTIPHON (2012) which is part of a new work MONUMENT FILM (2012).
ANTIPHON is constituted by the same four basic elements of cinema
– light and darkness, sound and silence – as my film ARNULF RAINER, but it has the opposite form. Negative becomes positive, positive becomes negative, silence becomes sound, sound becomes silence.
MONUMENT FILM appears in TWO forms:
I
Projection in a dark and silent space:
1) ARNULF RAINER
2) ANTIPHON
3) ARNULF RAINER and ANTIPHON projected at the same time, side by side. The appearance is continuous light alternating in space between two projectors, and continuous sound alternating between two speakers.
4) ARNULF RAINER and ANTIPHON projected at the same time on one screen with one speaker. The appearance theoretically is continuous projection of WHITE light and continuous sound, but there is a slight alternation between the two machines, articulating the materiality of classic cinema.
II
Installation in a bright rectangular space defined by three white walls:
The films are cut, each in 128 equally long strips, which hang on nails and are arranged in a rectangular, metric form.
1) Left wall: ARNULF RAINER
2) Right wall: ANTIPHON exactly opposite
3) Centre wall: ARNULF RAINER and ANTIPHON placed one over the other. The appearance is theoretically a BLACK rectangle but the antiphony is articulated by the two strips of film. (Peter Kubelka)
The Monument Film installation is on display in the BFI Southbank Atrium for the duration of the Festival.
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Date: 9 April 2013 | Season: London Film Festival 2012 | Tags: Peter Kubelka
PETER KUBELKA PRESENTS MONUMENT FILM
Tuesday 9 April 2013, at 6:30pm
London BFI Southbank NFT1
Peter Kubelka, Monument Film, Austria, 1960/2012, c.90 min (lecture screening)
The Austrian filmmaker Peter Kubelka has been a vital and uncompromising force in cinema for more than half a century. In a body of work that lasts not much more than an hour in total, he condenses and articulates the essential qualities of analogue cinema, distinguishing film as an autonomous artform. His 1960 film Arnulf Rainer, composed only of the purest elements of light and darkness, sound and silence, remains one of the most radical achievements in film history. In response to that earlier work, his new film Antiphon was revealed in 2012 as part of Monument Film, a powerful testament to the entire medium. With two 35mm projectors situated in the auditorium, each film is screened individually, then combined as double projections, both side-by-side and superimposed upon each other. Throughout this extraordinary projection event, Peter Kubelka will discuss his theories, explaining the differences between film and digital media, and articulating his belief in the survival of cinema.
Curated by Mark Webber. Presented with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum, London. This performance was originally scheduled for the 56th BFI London Film Festival last October.
