FRENKEL DEFECTS III
LOMAA is pleased to welcome Kevin Rice of the Colorado-based nonprofit organization, Process Reversal, to present the third installment of its unique traveling film series — Frenkel Defects.
‘Frenkel Defects’ is a recurring series that aims to explore what it means to work in — and exhibit on — photochemical film today, by examining works from artists operating specifically in this practice.
Often, this involves getting their hands dirty at every stage of the process: from optical effects to photo-processing, editing and contact printing, optical sound recording, and even the creation of the photosensitive emulsion itself… As a result (and as suggested by the series’ title), creative aberrations make their way into the standard photochemical process, giving birth to a new, textural aesthetic that plays out on the surface of the film strip. More than ever before, film reminds us of its physicality, giving a new sense to Andrei Tarkovsky’s idea of “sculpting in time.”
For this year’s edition, a 75-minute program of rare and diverse works, nearly all of which originate outside North America, will be presented in their intended 16mm format. Almost all of these films were produced with the help of “artist-run film labs” — collectively-run organizations dedicated to facilitating artists’ working in photochemical film — including LaborBerlin (Berlin), L’Abominable (Paris) and Filmwerkplaats (Rotterdam).
While these and other organizations have been active in Europe for almost two decades, the trend is just beginning to emerge in North America, with experimental laboratories springing up in Boston, Oakland, Denver, New York, Vancouver, Montreal and elsewhere. Process Reversal, having secured abundant donations of lab equipment, hopes to continue assisting in the growth of these spaces by providing communities with the critical tools, knowledge and resources necessary to ensure the viability of the medium for all.
Screening programme:
Konrad & Kurfurst (Esther Urlus, Netherlands, 2014) 7 minutes
“A fictional re-enactment of a 5 minutes happening that took place during the Olympic games in Berlin 1936. Made on home brew emulsion and color toned with the helping hand of technical publications from early cinema and photographic experiments. The home brew emulsion as fragile metaphor for the heroism of Konrad and his horse Kurfurst. Falling from his horse he became a national hero but overtaken by history, an anti-hero.”
WAKE (Eric Stewart, USA, 2014) 8 minutes, silent.
“Wake is a dirge in celluloid. It is a celebration of my father’s life, a meditation on his body and a visual record of mourning. When my father died, there was never a chance to see his body after life had left it. This film was made by placing his ashes directly on 35mm film in a dark room and moving the film a frame at a time. What we see in this process of photograming is not the object in the photographic sense, but instead a representation of the space surrounding an object. The photogram is a shadow charting the distance between things.”
In the Traveler’s Heart (DISTRUKTUR, Lithuania/Germany/Brazil, 2013) 20 minutes
“The winter reigns as the Traveler crosses by feet an ancient landscape.
In this place there’s also another presence, someone who’s very similar to the Traveler. Does the Traveler realise this figure that cohabits the same space as him? Is the other a guardian angel or a devil?”
Aula Magna (Andrés Denegri, Argentina, 2013) 10 minutes
“A structural farewell poem made for a beloved place. The images were shot frame by frame over the course of a year, in order to portray the author’s home main room through the variation of the light coming from a window. The sound, by Pablo Denegri, was made by mixing and processing, in real time, direct recordings made in the same space.”
Split Film 100110 (Dražen Zanchi, Croatia/France, 2010) 30 minutes
Boats are entering in the Split harbor. Each sequence is a maneuver: slow and continuous. Nevertheless, boats and their movements become more and more difficult to recognize because the image is drawn in fluctuations of its physical elements. Textures of bulky light layers and grainy grey noises are confounded with the soundtrack. The latter is articulated around the touch, i.e. local and non-propagating formations grafted on thick resonant and tonal substrate.
Film selection and programming by Mariya Nikiforova (Balagan Films) and Kevin Rice (Process Reversal)
–This event is $5 or pay-what-you-can–