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News of The World – Am I doing the Right Thing?
The program curated by Josefina Posch contains videos by both Swedish and International artists that all somehow address music as an important subculture attribute and our contemporary society’s fascination with celebrity. The artists uses various formats and genres such as comedy, documentary, self-exposure biography, music video, animation in their deconstruction, critique or play with celebrity, fandom and musical subcultures seeking alternatives to mass medias depiction of the same subjects. The title of the program News of the World is a reference to the tabloid with the same name, which is the largest selling English-speaking newspaper in the world. On its web site visitors are urged to sell their own celebrity story and the tabloid addresses various concerns and moral issues that the public might have in doing so. Under the subtitle Am I doing the right thing? one can read: Celebrities and politicians make fortunes by selling their stories to glossy magazines and expensive publishers, so why shouldn’t you? Indeed, the money we pay often helps people rebuild their lives after suffering an injustice or tragedy. If you wish, we can pay the money to a charity of your choice so others can benefit.
The artist included are: Jordan Baseman (UK), Brice Dellsperger (FRA), Magdalena Dziurlikowska (PL/SE), Frida Franker (SE), Eliana Ivarsdotter Haddad (SE), Richard Phillips (US), Eszter Szabó (HU).
List of videos and artists in the order of screening:
“JW/FF” - Frida Franker, Documentary, 00;19:00, ©2011 “
In 1990 she first saw Jerry Williams on TV. She has never forgotten it. 20 Years later she wants to find him and we get access to her hysterical quest for her idol. She is as obsessed with him as a football supporter or a boy band fan. JW stays as cool as usual. A film about an unusual friendship.”
Director Frida Franker (b. Gothenburg, Sweden 1982) Educated at Valand School of Fine Arts and Kanazawa College of Arts, Japan. Frida has the last years participated in a wide amount of exhibitions, most recently she took part in an exhibition in Rio de Janerio. JW/FF got selected for the Gothenburg International Film Festival 2011 and has been screened at film festivals all over Europe. Her first documentary was broadcasted at SVT Swedish National Televison in 2009.
“Adam in 2053” - Eszter Szabó, Animation, 00;02:30, ©2010 *Swedish Premier
“Adam in 2053” is part of Eszter Szabó’s video series where the artist’s friends are depicted as how she imagines them as pensioners. Playing with electrical games, wearing clothes recalling the fashion and music of the alternative scene today. Her animation videos are based on traditional painting techniques, although the visual world of the scenes evokes our contemporary digital universe.
Director Eszter Szabó (b.Budapest 1979) is a graduate from the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest, Department of Painting and studies at the École des Beaux Arts, Le Mans, France. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Videospace Gallery, Budapest, Jozsa Gallery, Brussels, Hungarian Cultural Institute, Paris and in group exhibitions such as Ernst Museum, Budapest, FIAC, Paris and Empire Gallery, London to mention a few.
“Born to Run” – Jordan Baseman, DV Documentary, 00;09:00, 2002 *Swedish Premier
“Born To Run” features Alan and Chris – the operators of The Mobile Chef Snack Bar. The Mobile Chef is permanently pitched alongside the A590 motorway, in Cumbria, in the North of England. “Born To Run” investigates the magic of Bruce Springsteen, the fragile nature of friendship, and life by the side of a busy motorway.
Director Jordan Baseman’s films have recently featured in exhibitions and film festivals including; 53rd Venice Biennale, Los Angeles Animation Festival (where he won Best Film in the Dangerous Experiments category), San Francisco Short Film Festival, Melbourne Underground Film Festival (where he won Best International Short Film), Tatton Park Biennial, Gstaad Film Festival and London Short Film Festival. Jordan Baseman is represented by Matt’s Gallery London ©2011
“ Lindsay Lohan” – Richard Phillips and director Taylor Steele, DV, 00;01.38, 2011 *Swedish Premier
In his first short film “Lindsay Lohan” Phillips draws on the conventions of his painting that explore the legacies of classical portraiture in relation to the mediated representations of contemporary popular culture. Referring to iconic moments in film, such as Brigitte Bardot smoldering in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, or the searing psychosexual interplay of Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullman in Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, creating a timeless and psychologically charged Hollywood setting, Phillips repurposed a remote Malibu mansion, but freighted it with the speculative desire of contemporary cinematic performance. Phillips repudiates the cynical expediency associated with the artistic and commercial convention of the screen test by examining and exposing its manipulative and coercive undertones. He thus works to subvert this carefully constructed form, presenting Lohan as released from acutely mediated narrative representation.
Director Richard Phillips (b.Massachusetts 1962) lives and works in New York. He has exhibited his work in numerous group shows internationally including Whitney Biennial, New York, Greater New York, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg and Timer.01: Intimacy, Triennale Bovisa, Milan. Solo exhibitions include Kunsthalle Zürich, Kunstverein Hamburg, Le Consortium, Dijon as well as solo exhibitions at White Cube, London. Phillips film “Lindsay Lohan” was included in the exhibition Commercial Break, presented by the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Venice, concurrent with the 54th Venice Biennale, 2011.
"Attention Whore" – Magdalena Dziurlikowska, DV, 00;07:30 ©2009
Every artist wants to get some recognition but at the same time it is shameful to admit it. I am attracted by the benefits that come with having recognition or being famous. It is much easier for a famous person to take space in the grand discussions and to influence others. A famous person can also have the artistic freedom to make a living by being one self. In the film I analyze my aspiration to make a difference and to be seen. At times I am disappointed with myself because I am not more strategic but at the same time I am ashamed for my calculating thoughts.
Director Magdalena Dziurlikowska (f. 1975 Warszawa) is an artist and art critic who works in Stockholm. She has an MFA in Fine Arts from Konstfack and a B.A. in Art Theory from the University of Stockholm. She works with video, photography and text. The core of her work is staged documentaries in which she sharply investigates herself, her problems and her artistic practice with a mixture of black humor and deepest sincerity.
“Funky Town” - Brice Dellsperger , Music video for “Jean-Luc Verna & his DUM DUM BOYS” 00;04:15, 2006 * Swedish Premier
Dellsperger’s works mainly consist of the video series “Body Double” after Brian De Palma’s 1984 feature film with the same name, today the series contains 24 films of various length. Based upon the concept of body double in commercial feature films, Dellsperger’s proposes a new version of an existing movie sequence by producing a copy, also called remake, of the sequence itself, then replacing the characters of the original with various transvestites. Funky Town is a music video directed for his artist friend Jean-Luc Verna and his band. The very simple idea of the video is to make a space birthday cake, with different iconic people dancing on top of it, with Jean-Luc as a MC. The still shot originates from Spielberg’s film “ET”, one can recognize the shot when, at the beginning of the movie, ET is left by his mother ship on planet earth and goes down the Hollywood hills to meet some human beings in Los Angeles. This single shot of the movie is taken as a background for the video, and the ship has been turned into a turning flying turd, landing in Los Angeles. In the song, it says then ” Won’t you take me to, Funky Town? “.
Director Brice Dellsperger (b. 1972 Cannes, lives/works Paris) studied Fine Art at Nice Villa Arson and is since 2003 a teacher at ENSAD. Dellsperger works had been exhibited internationally in spaces such as MoMA, New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris as well as in Brazil, Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, Turkey & Japan. His work is included in a number of prominent public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Dellsperger is represented by Gallerie Air de Paris, Paris and Team Gallery, New York.
“Legion” – Eliana Ivarsdotter Haddad, Music by Richard Widerberg, DV, 00;13:00, 2010
During one day a group of women whom mostly did not know each other, gathered at Musikens Hus in Gothenburg, to participate in the act of falling off a stage and be received by each other’s raised arms. The situation is based upon the world of rock concerts and festivals, here recreated in a safe environment, transformed into an exercise in trust and bravery. Creating a space for warmth and solidarity with a critical view towards the macho rock culture, at the same time one can sense that nervousness and peer pressure has surfaced even in this constructed social situation. The video address questions about feminist utopia and it’s potential.
Director Eliana Ivarsdotter Haddad is a Gothenburg based artist who works with a wide spectra of media from video, photography, sculpture and installation to text- and sound based works. Eliana received her MFA at Valand School of Fine Arts, 2009. Her earlier work has often addressed issues with identity. What creates identity and what becomes the norm-ideal in our society? Eliana’s first solo exhibition was at Konsthallen Trollhättan, 2010 and she has since then exhibited at Ropa Projektrum for Contemporary Art in Stockholm and this fall at Galleri 54 in Gothenburg.
The program curated by Josefina Posch contains videos by both Swedish and International artists that all somehow address music as an important subculture attribute and our contemporary society’s fascination with celebrity. The artists uses various formats and genres such as comedy, documentary, self-exposure biography, music video, animation in their deconstruction, critique or play with celebrity, fandom and musical subcultures seeking alternatives to mass medias depiction of the same subjects. The title of the program News of the World is a reference to the tabloid with the same name, which is the largest selling English-speaking newspaper in the world. On its web site visitors are urged to sell their own celebrity story and the tabloid addresses various concerns and moral issues that the public might have in doing so. Under the subtitle Am I doing the right thing? one can read: Celebrities and politicians make fortunes by selling their stories to glossy magazines and expensive publishers, so why shouldn’t you? Indeed, the money we pay often helps people rebuild their lives after suffering an injustice or tragedy. If you wish, we can pay the money to a charity of your choice so others can benefit.
The artist included are: Jordan Baseman (UK), Brice Dellsperger (FRA), Magdalena Dziurlikowska (PL/SE), Frida Franker (SE), Eliana Ivarsdotter Haddad (SE), Richard Phillips (US), Eszter Szabó (HU).
List of videos and artists in the order of screening:
“JW/FF” - Frida Franker, Documentary, 00;19:00, ©2011 “
In 1990 she first saw Jerry Williams on TV. She has never forgotten it. 20 Years later she wants to find him and we get access to her hysterical quest for her idol. She is as obsessed with him as a football supporter or a boy band fan. JW stays as cool as usual. A film about an unusual friendship.”
Director Frida Franker (b. Gothenburg, Sweden 1982) Educated at Valand School of Fine Arts and Kanazawa College of Arts, Japan. Frida has the last years participated in a wide amount of exhibitions, most recently she took part in an exhibition in Rio de Janerio. JW/FF got selected for the Gothenburg International Film Festival 2011 and has been screened at film festivals all over Europe. Her first documentary was broadcasted at SVT Swedish National Televison in 2009.
“Adam in 2053” - Eszter Szabó, Animation, 00;02:30, ©2010 *Swedish Premier
“Adam in 2053” is part of Eszter Szabó’s video series where the artist’s friends are depicted as how she imagines them as pensioners. Playing with electrical games, wearing clothes recalling the fashion and music of the alternative scene today. Her animation videos are based on traditional painting techniques, although the visual world of the scenes evokes our contemporary digital universe.
Director Eszter Szabó (b.Budapest 1979) is a graduate from the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, Budapest, Department of Painting and studies at the École des Beaux Arts, Le Mans, France. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Videospace Gallery, Budapest, Jozsa Gallery, Brussels, Hungarian Cultural Institute, Paris and in group exhibitions such as Ernst Museum, Budapest, FIAC, Paris and Empire Gallery, London to mention a few.
“Born to Run” – Jordan Baseman, DV Documentary, 00;09:00, 2002 *Swedish Premier
“Born To Run” features Alan and Chris – the operators of The Mobile Chef Snack Bar. The Mobile Chef is permanently pitched alongside the A590 motorway, in Cumbria, in the North of England. “Born To Run” investigates the magic of Bruce Springsteen, the fragile nature of friendship, and life by the side of a busy motorway.
Director Jordan Baseman’s films have recently featured in exhibitions and film festivals including; 53rd Venice Biennale, Los Angeles Animation Festival (where he won Best Film in the Dangerous Experiments category), San Francisco Short Film Festival, Melbourne Underground Film Festival (where he won Best International Short Film), Tatton Park Biennial, Gstaad Film Festival and London Short Film Festival. Jordan Baseman is represented by Matt’s Gallery London ©2011
“ Lindsay Lohan” – Richard Phillips and director Taylor Steele, DV, 00;01.38, 2011 *Swedish Premier
In his first short film “Lindsay Lohan” Phillips draws on the conventions of his painting that explore the legacies of classical portraiture in relation to the mediated representations of contemporary popular culture. Referring to iconic moments in film, such as Brigitte Bardot smoldering in Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, or the searing psychosexual interplay of Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullman in Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, creating a timeless and psychologically charged Hollywood setting, Phillips repurposed a remote Malibu mansion, but freighted it with the speculative desire of contemporary cinematic performance. Phillips repudiates the cynical expediency associated with the artistic and commercial convention of the screen test by examining and exposing its manipulative and coercive undertones. He thus works to subvert this carefully constructed form, presenting Lohan as released from acutely mediated narrative representation.
Director Richard Phillips (b.Massachusetts 1962) lives and works in New York. He has exhibited his work in numerous group shows internationally including Whitney Biennial, New York, Greater New York, PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg and Timer.01: Intimacy, Triennale Bovisa, Milan. Solo exhibitions include Kunsthalle Zürich, Kunstverein Hamburg, Le Consortium, Dijon as well as solo exhibitions at White Cube, London. Phillips film “Lindsay Lohan” was included in the exhibition Commercial Break, presented by the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Venice, concurrent with the 54th Venice Biennale, 2011.
"Attention Whore" – Magdalena Dziurlikowska, DV, 00;07:30 ©2009
Every artist wants to get some recognition but at the same time it is shameful to admit it. I am attracted by the benefits that come with having recognition or being famous. It is much easier for a famous person to take space in the grand discussions and to influence others. A famous person can also have the artistic freedom to make a living by being one self. In the film I analyze my aspiration to make a difference and to be seen. At times I am disappointed with myself because I am not more strategic but at the same time I am ashamed for my calculating thoughts.
Director Magdalena Dziurlikowska (f. 1975 Warszawa) is an artist and art critic who works in Stockholm. She has an MFA in Fine Arts from Konstfack and a B.A. in Art Theory from the University of Stockholm. She works with video, photography and text. The core of her work is staged documentaries in which she sharply investigates herself, her problems and her artistic practice with a mixture of black humor and deepest sincerity.
“Funky Town” - Brice Dellsperger , Music video for “Jean-Luc Verna & his DUM DUM BOYS” 00;04:15, 2006 * Swedish Premier
Dellsperger’s works mainly consist of the video series “Body Double” after Brian De Palma’s 1984 feature film with the same name, today the series contains 24 films of various length. Based upon the concept of body double in commercial feature films, Dellsperger’s proposes a new version of an existing movie sequence by producing a copy, also called remake, of the sequence itself, then replacing the characters of the original with various transvestites. Funky Town is a music video directed for his artist friend Jean-Luc Verna and his band. The very simple idea of the video is to make a space birthday cake, with different iconic people dancing on top of it, with Jean-Luc as a MC. The still shot originates from Spielberg’s film “ET”, one can recognize the shot when, at the beginning of the movie, ET is left by his mother ship on planet earth and goes down the Hollywood hills to meet some human beings in Los Angeles. This single shot of the movie is taken as a background for the video, and the ship has been turned into a turning flying turd, landing in Los Angeles. In the song, it says then ” Won’t you take me to, Funky Town? “.
Director Brice Dellsperger (b. 1972 Cannes, lives/works Paris) studied Fine Art at Nice Villa Arson and is since 2003 a teacher at ENSAD. Dellsperger works had been exhibited internationally in spaces such as MoMA, New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris as well as in Brazil, Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, Turkey & Japan. His work is included in a number of prominent public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Dellsperger is represented by Gallerie Air de Paris, Paris and Team Gallery, New York.
“Legion” – Eliana Ivarsdotter Haddad, Music by Richard Widerberg, DV, 00;13:00, 2010
During one day a group of women whom mostly did not know each other, gathered at Musikens Hus in Gothenburg, to participate in the act of falling off a stage and be received by each other’s raised arms. The situation is based upon the world of rock concerts and festivals, here recreated in a safe environment, transformed into an exercise in trust and bravery. Creating a space for warmth and solidarity with a critical view towards the macho rock culture, at the same time one can sense that nervousness and peer pressure has surfaced even in this constructed social situation. The video address questions about feminist utopia and it’s potential.
Director Eliana Ivarsdotter Haddad is a Gothenburg based artist who works with a wide spectra of media from video, photography, sculpture and installation to text- and sound based works. Eliana received her MFA at Valand School of Fine Arts, 2009. Her earlier work has often addressed issues with identity. What creates identity and what becomes the norm-ideal in our society? Eliana’s first solo exhibition was at Konsthallen Trollhättan, 2010 and she has since then exhibited at Ropa Projektrum for Contemporary Art in Stockholm and this fall at Galleri 54 in Gothenburg.