Claes Söderquist is a prominent figure of Swedish experimental film whose visually appealing and personal films revolve around slow cinematic reflections on architecture, landscape, strata, time and space. With influences from and interests in Land-Art, minimalist music (like Charlemagne Palestine) and structural film processes, Söderquist's dystopian and desolate scenery is sometimes reminiscent of the films by Michael Snow and Larry Gottheim.
Cinema Parenthèse presents Land/Scapes, a series in three programs with films by Claes Söderquist (Sweden), Els van Riel (Belgium), and Werner Nekes (Germany), that seeks to explore the encounter of film and the expanse of landscape. The encounter stages the possibility on the one hand of the investigation of historical and dimensional aspects of space, and on the other, a reflective reconnaissance of the film medium.
The history of Swedish experimental film is a story of small broken histories. Sometimes it has resulted in significant works, such as Viking Eggeling's seminal Symphonie diagonale, or in significant experimental filmmakers, such as Gunvor Nelson. But, that is rather the exception than the rule. However, what unites Eggling, Nelson and the films that will be presented in this program is the international context as a prerequisite for the work and the individual films.
Index and Film i Samtidskonsten present a joint series of four evenings of experimental films at Index' gallery. The programs have been developed as an extension of the most recent issue of the cultural magazine OEI #69-70: On film, published in autumn 2015, with 496 pages about significant practices of the Swedish experimental film scene. The events are organized as part of the decentral festival Kortfilmsdagen on December 21, supported by the Swedish Film Institute.
Curated by Martin Grennberger and Daniel A. Swarthnas, the program shows a selection of important Swedish experimental films, contextualized by works of international film practitioners. Several of the films are being shown for the first time in Sweden.
