Contemporary Art X Cinema

Production still from Love is a Treasure 2002 (2020 2K Digital Restoration) / Director: Eija-Liisa Ahtila / Image courtesy: Crystal Eye

Production still from Love is a Treasure 2002 (2020 2K Digital Restoration) / Director: Eija-Liisa Ahtila / Image courtesy: Crystal Eye / View full image

When

23 Jun – 26 Jul 2023

Where

Gallery of Modern Art, Cinema A & Cinema B

About

‘Contemporary Art X Cinema’ showcases films by multi-disciplinary artists whose practice has expanded into moving image works that directly engage with the language of cinema. From riveting historical dramas and heart-wrenching biopics, to thought-provoking experimental films that push the boundaries of narrative storytelling, this program brings together a curated selection of films that look at the way artists are blurring the line between the white box of the gallery and the black box of cinema.

Film & In Conversation: Soda Jerk on Hello Dankness
1.30pm, Sat 1 Jul 2023 | Free, no bookings required
Join us for the Queensland premiere of Australian art duo Soda Jerk’s new film Hello Dankness 2022 which will be followed by a live In Conversation between Soda Jerk and Ellie Buttrose, Curator, Contemporary Australian Art.

The program is presented across five interconnected strands – Power and Protest, Ports of Memory, Estranged Existences, Searching for Self and Looking Back, Looking Forward. Read more about these strands at the bottom of this page.

Program curated by Victoria Wareham, Australian Cinémathèque.

QAGOMA acknowledges the generous assistance of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Canberra, Canberra in providing materials for this program.

Past

Contemporary Art X Cinema

The program is presented across five interconnected strands – Power and Protest, Ports of Memory, Estranged Existences, Searching for Self and Looking Back, Looking Forward.

Power and Protest
‘Power and Protest’ includes films that explore rebellion, resistance, and renewal. From brightly coloured visual essays and moving image satire, to dystopic tales of greed, violence and over-abundance, these films use appropriation, performance, and humour to highlight the current state of society and encourage political change.

Ephraim Asili The Inheritance 2020
The Otolith Group INFINITY Minus Infinity 2019
Soda Jerk Hello Dankness 2023
Jane Jin Kaisen Community of Parting 2019
Kutlug Ataman Hilal, Feza and Other Planets 2022
Steve McQueen Hunger 2008

Ports of Memory
‘Ports of Memory’ features stories of loss, nostalgia, ritual, and escapism that take place in locales associated with movement and change. Set amongst urban ruins, ransacked environments and shells of industry, these films transform containers of the past into new spaces for imagined futures and alternate realities.

Phil Collins Delete Beach 2016
Matthew Barney Drawing Restraint 9 2005
Pierre Huyghe Untitled (Human Mask) 2014
Hito Steyerl In Free Fall 2010
Cao Fei Asia One 2018

Estranged Existences
‘Estranged Existences’ presents experiences of isolation and alienation that traverse the slippery territory between the real and the imaginary, the mind and the body. Some films use dream-like sets and poetic landscapes to illustrate shifts in perception, while others take a more subtle approach to exploring alternate states of being.


Naeem Mohaiemen Tripoli Cancelled 2017
Ben Rivers Two Years at Sea 2011
Yang Fudong An Estranged Paradise 1997-2002
Emily Wardill When You Fall into A Trance 2014
Alison O’Daniel The Tuba Thieves 2023
Eija-Liisa Ahtila Love is a Treasure 2002

Searching for Self
‘Searching for Self’ features stories of self-discovery where culture and identity collide. Told through fantasy and play, fact and fiction, the selected films move between documentary, drama, and experimental filmmaking to create spectacular visual journeys that reveal the layers of history, tradition and culture that make us who we are.

Shirin Neshat Looking for Oum Kulthum 2017
Sin Wai Kin A Dream of Wholeness in Parts 2021
Isaac Julien Looking for Langston 1989
Piploitti Rist Pepperminta 2009
MASBEDO The Lack 2014

Looking Back, Looking Forward
‘Looking Back, Looking Forward’ uses events from the past to imagine new paths to the future. From snowy dreamscapes and haunted houses to death myths and forbidden exchanges, these films use tropes from the past to create poetic meditations on the future.

Maryam Tafakory Nazarbazi 2022
Yang Fudong The Nightman Cometh 2011
Tracey Moffatt beDevil 1993
Sky Hopinka maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore 2020
Subash Thebe Limbu NINGWASUM 2021
Muneum Wasif Kheyal 2018