Video

Saana Maarit - video (QuickTime)

Sanna Maarit: At the still point of turning world

On Friday, the 9th of February 2007, you were kindly invited to attend the opening At the still point of turning world, which represents five London based video and film artists, curated by Sanna Maarit. The exhibition was opened at the KiBela space for art, MMC KIBLA, Ulica kneza Koclja 9, Maribor untill the 21st of February.

This cutting – edge exhibition featured five contemporary London artist filmmakers, their films, videos, installations and multiscreen projections explode techniques of collage and montage, recycling and reworking found material.

At the still point of turning world reveals the interlocking nature of the deeply personal and the infinitely universal. Diary, observation, perception and cinematic techniques interweave individual experience with social and urban environments.
Inevitable forces of human nature, these magnetic timepieces plummet irresistibly into our hearts. There is no other way.

“ With every new Buzz of the projector, with every new buzz of our cameras,
Our hearts jump forward my friends!” Jonas Mekas

About the authors:

LOUIS BENASSI is an artist filmmaker, born in Glasgow. He studied fine art and the anthropology of art and aesthetics at the Slade School University College London and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Louis has exhibited his films internationally, and travelled extensively curating and programming film for various festivals and institutions: including 'This Time Its Political' for the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, The Edinburgh International Film Festival - where he curated a major retrospective on the influential experimental film maker Jonas Mekas and the Persistence of Vision also 'Jonas Mekas in Person' for The Institute of Contemporary Art London, 'Face Off' for The Cinema Texas International Short Film Festival. 'Topographies and Space' for The E.M. arts foundation Naples. In 2004 he organised a season of film and spoken word focusing on the poems of Arthur Rimbaud and his influence on contemporary writers and artist film makers for New York University. He is the founder of 'Spool Pool' a critically acclaimed underground forum for experimental film and spoken word performance. He is currently working on some of his new films, and in close collaboration with Pip Chodorov preparing a programme of unseen of 'Lettrist Cinema of the 1950s' which will be screened in London early 2007.

KAREN MIRZA and BRAD BUTLER make film and video installations that question the filmic, sculptural and architectonic qualities of the moving image. Mirza / Butler install their films in architectural configurations, frequently presenting them across two or three screens, the questions of past and presence, framing and projection are interrogated and expanded notions of these are proposed. Their work aims to blur the distinctions between film and sculpture, art and cinema.
Early works often emerged from their interest in seminal avant-garde film. Non Places (1999), for example, is a contemporary take on the constructivist films of the 1920’s and in ‘Where a straight line meets a curve (2003) the artists drew inspiration from the use of resonant frequencies from Alvin Lucia’s ‘I am sitting in a room’ [1970]. In more recent
work, Mirza / Butler often take a single visual observation as a point of departure, such as the space between tower blocks in ‘The Space Between’ (2005), the gesture of performing a 360 degree walking rotation with a camera in ‘Structural Constellation’ (2006) or the cinematic principles inherent in photo realist painting in The Glass Stare (2006). From these initial images, Mirza and Butler intertwine a range of visual and conceptual languages, combining analytical and experimental sequences to create beguilingly open-ended works. In their forthcoming work, ‘The Return of the Real’ (2007), Mirza / Butler are working with performances by passerby’s in a series of interrelated mise-en-scènes that reflect issues of subjectivity and authorship.
Karen Mirza [1969] and Brad Butler [1973] live and work in London and have had a collaborative practice for 8 years. They have exhibited in many group exhibitions, recent shows include ‘Evolution’ Leeds City Art Gallery, ‘The Expanded Eye’ Kunsthausc Zurich, ‘New Work UK’ Whitechapel Gallery, [2006] Architecture and Film Biennale Graz, ‘Vertical and Horizontal’ Serpentine Pavilion and ‘A Certain Tendency in Representation’ at Thomas Dane gallery [2005].
Karen Mirza and Brad Butler are represented by Re:Voir Gallery in Paris.

BENN NORTHOVER is a filmmaker, actor and curator from U.K.
His work as a filmmaker has been shown in festivals and exhibitions both in Europe and the United States, including the 2005’s Venice Biennale and The Marseilles documentary film festival. As a curator he is part of the London based film group, Spool Pool, which is dedicated to the exhibition and bringing together of both established and contemporary experimental and avant-garde works.
Benn is currently collaborating with the filmmaker Jonas Mekas on several film projects,
Most recently on the gallery and internet based launch of www.jonasmekas.com , consisting of the creation of 365 new film and video works.
Benn Northover’s work furthers the diary film genre, often exploring themes of character, travel and friendship.

SANNA MAARIT is an artist and filmmaker from Finland.
She studied fine art and film in London, Canada and Finland. Working within the mediums of video, film, photography and installation, Sanna’s work often explores themes of identity, character, space and environment.
Her recent works include a series of multiscreen projections and installations, exhibited at several venues and film events both in the U.K and Europe.
Sanna has worked with several established artists and organizations on a wide range of projects, including film production, personal and production assistant and educational programs.
AT STILL POINT OF A TURNING WORLD, is Sanna’s 3rd group show as curator.

Special thanks to:
Pip Chodorov, www.re-voir.com
Jimmy Wormser