Our Gala screening includes Matthew Aker's film 'The Artist is Present' on the New York-based Serbian performance artist Marina Abramovic.
Filmed in 2010 around a landmark retrospective of her performance art, it includes Aker's documentation of her 700-hour long piece at MoMa (Museum of Modern Art, NY) and the embodied processes of her work, at times life-risking, raising questions of what is art. It includes new pieces that continue to explore the themes of trust, endurance, pain, catharsis and danger present in four decades of her practice.
'The Artist is Present' goes on public release in the UK on July 4th through Dogwoof distribution.
Matthew Akers
2011 / USA / 105’
Still of Marina Abramovic and Matthew Akers in Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present
We are also pleased to present a live performance from the London Contemporary Voices, a contemporary choir originally conceived to support the Grammy-Award winning composer Imogen Heap with a performance pedigree that includes the Royal Albert Hall and the Poet's Church in Covent Garden. They will sing a specially composed piece of choral sound design for the documentary 'Il Capo'.
Filmed by Yuri Ancarani, it watches 'The Chief' - an Italian quarryman at work who guides diggers and heavy-duty machines using a language consisting solely of gestures and signs.
Rehearsals are sounding spectacular, with the full complement of soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices responding to moving image.
2010, color, 35mm, 15'
London Contemporary Voices, Eaton Square
Book your tickets now on the main page, or here: Gala Tickets.
