With New Series Beginning March 8
MADISON, WI –The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) continues its Spotlight Film & Video program this spring with cutting-edge works by some of the most exciting international artists working with the moving image today. Works in the series will be screened in the museum’s lecture hall on Thursdays at 7 pm from March 8 through April 12, excluding April 5.
The series was curated by J.J. Murphy, professor of film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Murphy, who also organized the premier Spotlight Film & Video series presented in fall 2006, worked with art galleries, rather than traditional film distributors, to acquire many of the works. As he points out, these films and videos would probably not be shown in Madison otherwise. “Some of the most interesting films and videos being created in the world today are being made for exhibition in galleries and museums. The art world has recently embraced time-based media in a way that it never has before.” Murphy emphasizes that while these works are both innovative and challenging, they are often humorous and entertaining as well.
The upcoming Spotlight Film & Video series includes these works:
March 8
Film by Nikki S. Lee
aka Nikki S. Lee (2006, 60 minutes)
Nikki S. Lee is a well-known Korean-American photographer whose work deals with issues of ethnic identity. Spotlight Film & Video will feature her film aka Nikki S. Lee, which recently premiered at The Museum of Modern Art and screened at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The work humorously confuses distinctions between fiction and reality. Lee’s work is courtesy of Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects in New York City.
March 15
Videos by Kalup Linzy (60 minutes)
Ride to Da Club (2002)
Julietta Calls Ramone (2002)
Conversations wit de Churen II: All My Churen (2003)
KK Queens Survey (2005)
Lollypop (2006)
Conversations wit de Churen V: As da Art World Might Turn (2006)
Kalup Linzy’s witty and irreverent videos utilize conventions of the television soap opera to explore issues of gay identity and family within African-American culture, as well as issues of social power within the art world. Linzy’s videos recently screened at PS 1 Contemporary Art Center and were discussed in the January 2007 issue of Artforum. His works appear courtesy of Taxter & Spengemann in New York.
March 22
Films by Yang Fudong
Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest (2003-2004, 75 minutes)
Parts 1 and 2 of this five-part project by Yang Fudong premiered at the last Carnegie International and will be screened at MMoCA. (The entire project is scheduled to debut this summer at the 2007 Venice Biennale.) These films explore the lives of young poets and artists as they attempt to navigate the conflict between idealism and compromise in the rapidly changing culture of China. Works by Fudong are courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery in New York.
March 29
Films by Eija-Liisa Ahtila (80 minutes)
Consolation Service (1999); Me, We, Okay, Gray (1993); Love is a Treasure (2002)
This program of three psychodramas by Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila focuses on the interior lives of womenoften at their breaking point. Ahtila’s three-screen installation piece titled The Wind was recently exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Works by Ahtila are courtesy of the Finnish Film Foundation and Marian Goodman Gallery in New York.
April 12
Film by Gus Van Sant
Mala Noche (1985, 78 minutes)
A newly restored print of Gus Van Sant’s rare first feature, Mala Noche (1985), will receive its theatrical re-release premiere as part of the upcoming Spotlight Film & Video series. Based on a novella by Walt Curtis and long considered by critics to be one of Van Sant’s very best films, Mala Noche explores the gay and drug subcultures of life on the streets of Portland, Oregon, with locals cast in the lead roles.
Spotlight Film & Video screenings are free for MMoCA members; $5 for the general public; $20 for the series. Series tickets may be purchased online at www.mmoca.org beginning March 1; individual tickets may be purchased at the door beginning at 6:30 pm.