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Mixed Bodies: Recent Australian Video

3 June 1998 4 June 1998

FIM!: Festival da Imagem en Movimento

Mixed Bodies: Recent Australian Video

appresentaçoa e curadoria / presented and curated by John Gillies

quarta 3 junho / wed 3 june, 22.00h/ 10pm

Local/Place: Sala Walter da Silveria

Reprise: quinta 4 junho / Thursday 4 june, 20.00h / 8pm

Local / place: Sala Alexandre Robatto

Salvador, Bahia, Brasil

The recent history of experimental audiovisual practice in Australia is remarkable for its renewed interest in the performing body in all its many guises. From the photo-narratives of Tracey Moffat and Bill Henson to physical theatre and queer performance, this primacy of the human body as the subiect of art reflects the shifting and developing place of human bodies within a multifaceted and multicultural contemporary culture. This means a break from a humanist realism as represented in a nationalist search for the essential Australian figure, which helped spawn the rebirth of the Australian film industry in the l97O’s.

Group

Location

Salvador
Bahia
Brasil
Selected objects
Other works 

1. 'Cardoso Flea Circus' I Maria Fernando Cardoso e Ross Rudesch Harley’ I 1997 I 7'30'

'O mais elaborado circo de pulgas em todos os tempos' The San Francisco Chronicle.

'The most elaborate flea circus everl' The San Francisco Chronicle.

2. 'ln the event of Amnesia the City will Recall' I Denis Beaubois I 1996-7 I 8'6"

Using the vehicle of suspicion to create a captive audience: the surveillance camera does not concern itself with the model citizen, but focuses on the model deviant. It is a pre-emptive technology, constantly scanning for the possible offender. To be seen or heard by the electronic eye, one must adopt the basis of the camera's visual code. Match the profile and become a suspect - which, in turn, creates a stage with a captive audience.

3. 'Pas de Deux' I Katherine Cullen I 1997 I 5 '

An exploration of the desire to become one, with and without a dance partner.

4. 'Soul Flight' I Lin Li I 1996 I 9'

A Chinese-Australian woman from Sydney travels to Tibet to perform a ritual where she is mourner, corpse and the soul of rebirth.

5. 'Milky Ways' I Mahmoud Yekta I 1996 I 5'

In a new land, two cultures meet. We, the newcomers, are children looking for our lost mothers. A search with fears, anxieties and pleasure which leave their marks on the foggy maze of memory.

 6. 'Vlvarium' I Mahalia Middlemlst I 1993 I 12'30"

Based on the dance performance ‘Hybrid', by Sue-ellen Kohler. 'The body is in constant production, its parameters in flux, and is frequently being redefined by the space it charts and with which it struggles. Likewise, the dimensionality of this space is constantly put in question by this struggle.'

7. ‘Al Aranga’ I Michael Schiavello I 1997 I 8’15"

In a multicultural environment like Australia we discovernew cultures and practices evolving with elements of ethnic authenticity continuously being surrender to richer and fuller rituals, encompassing a wider span of ethnic influence. "al'arenga" is a short experimental documentary observing interactions migrants to Australia having to cross cultures to simultaneously maintain their traditional practices. It also alludes to the temporary nature of some cus-and in itself is a recording of a disappearing cultural practice. 

 8. ‘Bridge of Hesltatlon' I Gravlty Feed I 1997 I 5'

'Bridge of Hesitation' represents a direct confrontation between body and landscape where the protagonist is the place. The narrative unfolds as if recalled by the sites themselves. In their maniacal search they seem doomed to linger in shadowy presence between urban, industrial and residential zones. The transient 'spaces of Sydney's metropolitan landscape present a series of stages for the passage of this inconsequential trio of ghost-men whose images become fragments, glitches. Are they survivors of some holocaust? ln being last they are also first?

 9. 'D-Void" I Michelle Maher| 1996 I 5'

Choreography and performance by Gravity Feed. In a featureless land, three dismayed, uncertain characters struggle within the containment of video space.

10. 'Look' I Martini I Polombi I 1994 I 3 '

 11. 'Autumn Song’ I John Conomos I 1997 I 23 '

'Autumn Song' is a performance/landscape video which explores the memories of a bicultural childhood spent in a postwar Australia during the Fifties. Its collage narrative structure pivots around the videomaker’s uncle, who was a writer, and who lived his life on the Greek island of Kythera.

12. 'Blind Ned' I Derek Kreckler' I 1998 I 2'10'

Ned Kelly was an infamous Australian bushranger. Ned was not blind. I have made Ned Blind. I did this for reasons that are not easy to explain. Blind Ned reflects my feelings about the current political situation in Australia.

tempo total I total running time: 87’30"

Cardoso Flea Circus Video, – from Cardoso Flea Circus, via Vimeo 
From Vivarium, via d'archive
From Vivarium, via d'archive – from Vivarium, via d/Archive 
Commonwealth Foundation2-Beaubois, – from In the event of Amnesia the city will recall…, via Vimeo 
FIM! Festival da Imagem en Movimento
FIM! Festival da Imagem en Movimento