THE REMAINS OF CINEMA

Crossing genres and generations, this exhibition contrasts historical and contemporary artistic positions with selected examples of historical films, in order to trace the impact and resonance of cinema on art and “cultural memory.” Without a doubt, the enormous social relevance of film—the leading medium of the twentieth century—belongs to the past. Today, cinema is just one of many types of pop cultural entertainment, just a continuous flow in a chain of synchronized market segments.

The thematic show presents hybrid passions and individual obsessions revolving around the cinematic cosmos. The artworks in the show address The Remains of Cinema, subjecting them to diverse transformational processes, and thus paying critical tribute to them. Besides films, the exhibition gathers a selection of film-specific works of art and artifacts left behind by the cinematic world, whereby the object and fetish character of these artifacts, as well as their specific materiality are of primary interest.

Participating artists will examine the disappearance of cinematic culture in diverse ways. Countless motifs from film history have long been part of our collective visual memory, and the artists often paraphrase them, not least because of their general comprehensibility—but this does not mean that affirmation, appropriation, and (representational) critique must be excluded. The artists will make use of historical, technical, formal-aesthetic, sociological, and psychological aspects of a global audio-visual film culture whose significance is, however, persistently dwindling.

The Remains of Cinema, exhibition view Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz, Austria, 2018 © Markus Krottendorfer

Exhibition with : John Baldessari, Erica Baum, Joseph Beuys, Jörg Buttgereit, Anne Collier, Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Karl Holmqvist, Ito Ryusuke, Björn Kämmerer, Johann Lurf, Bernd Oppl, Katrin Plavčak, Eric Rondepierre, Constanze Ruhm, Hans Scheugl, Viktoria Schmid, Michaela Schwentner, Haim Steinbach, John Stezaker, Mika Taanila, Antoinette Zwirchmayr.