Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie screening programme

bristol | media and culture | event notice Tuesday June 30, 2009 13:56 by Arnolfini

A final weekend of screenings which relate to ideas within Arnolfini's current exhibition Lapdogs of the Bourgeoise, which closes on Sunday 5th.

Each screening is preceeded by two short specially comissioned trailers made by Lapdogs artists Chris Evans and Neil Cummings.

Sat 4 July
5.30pm - THAT WAS YESTERDAY: A SCREENING PROGRAMME ABOUT ‘VALUE’ (Curated and introduced by Nav Haq)
£3 / £2

There are certain notions that are determined by such sliding scales that they vary radically from situation to situation. ‘Value’ is certainly one of them – an ideal that is constantly reshaped with the changing dynamics of culture, as well as economic and material conditions. Yet the possession of value is still one of the more embedded explanations for legitimising cultural phenomena.

This selection of video works reflects laterally as well as literally on this idea in different arenas, including art and culture. Also taking inspiration from German critic Diedrich Diederichsen’s recent essay ‘On (Surplus) Value in Art’, the programme considers today’s apparent crisis of valuation.

Includes: Michael Stevenson (NZ) Introduccion a la teoria de la Probabilidad, 2008, Goldin & Senneby (SE) After Microsoft, 2006-07, Hamra Abbas (PK) MoMA is the Star, 2004, Ed McHenry (UK) $1,000,000 Ambition, 2006, Alterazioni Video (IT) Intervallo, 2007, Vision of Excess, 2008, Ronny Heiremans & Katleen Vermeir (BE) The Good Life, 2009, Zachary Formwalt (US) At Face Value, 2008

Sat 4 July
7.30pm EPISODE III: ENJOY POVERTY (by Renzo Martens, 2008)
£6 / £4.50

Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yREqd8QYtsQ

Dutch artist / activist Renzo Martens' films examine the role of the camera in places of severe poverty and unrest. Ostensibly they are documentaries, but Martens also utilizes performance and satire to raise provocative questions around the relationship between today's media and the suffering it depicts.

His latest film, Episode 3 - the result of two-years spent in the Congo - implicates photographers, NGOs and aid organisations in the exploitation of one of Africa’s major exports: images of poverty and suffering. Martens’ brand of 'performance-documentary' rejects the false objectivity claimed by documentary-makers; he is constantly present in his films - as cameraman, reporter and activist - as he challenges locals to clearly see the mechanisms of their exploitation, teaching them to photograph their own abject circumstances for profit. He argues that poverty is a resource, controlled by foreigners just as the Congo's abundant raw materials have always been.

With characteristic shock-tactics, Martens challenges bewildered locals to "enjoy poverty" via a brash neon sign erected in their rural villages, provoking resentment, suspicion but also self-realization everywhere he points his camera. It is sometimes hard to watch, yet the turning of the gaze back on the photographer restores the individuality of the photographed, so used to accommodating the needs of the media and putting themselves at the service of its messages.

This is a rare chance to see this extremely provocative, troubling, yet moving film that relentlessly challenges Western viewers to re-examine our own, image-mediated, relationship with the world's poor.

"This is a tough film in every way and truly political filmmaking of the
highest order-fearless, divisive, controversial, and necessary."
Sean Farnel, director of programming Hot Docs

"This is one of the most critical, provocative, bold and important films
on the subject of poverty and western culpability that I have seen in years."
Sky Sitney, artistic director Silverdocs

Sunday 5 July
2.30 - 10pm CINEMA SUBOTNIK: PART II
FREE
Arnolfini presents the second installment of CINEMA SUBOTNIK, an extensive free screening programme selected by the artists participating in the LAPDOGS OF THE BOURGEOISIE exhibition. Subotniks were volunteer workers in communist Russia.

Subotnik: Part II includes rare 35mm films by Egyptian auteur Mohamed Khan (father of Lapdogs artist Hassam Khan), Tracy Emin’s Why I Never Became a Dancer, John Travolta and more.