Xcèntric: January-February 2010 screenings
Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
Montalegre, 5 - Barcelona, Spain

Anne Charlotte Robertson, Birgit Hein, Nelson Sullivan, Fred Worden, Isabelle Prim, Takashi ITO, Mara Mattushka y Chris Haring, Josef Dabernig, Stan Brakhage, Ming-Yuen S. Ma., Matthias Müller, Marie Losier, Sadie Benning, Virginia Villaplana, Hans Scheirl y Ursula Pürrer, David Domingo, David Gatten, Nanathiel Dorsky, Paul Sharits, Greg Pope, Claudio Caldini, Karen Johannesen, Guy Sherwin, Jim Jennings, Nick Hamlyn, Andrew Noren, Jane Aaron, Leighton Pierce, Louise Bourque, Sara MacLean, Ben Russell, Lewis Klahr, Peggy Ahwesh, Christian MarClay, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, hermanos Lumière, Sharon Lockhart, Ken Jacobs, Sam Taylor-Wood, Hollis Frampton, Emily Richardson, Jean Epstein, F.J.Ossang, Jean-Gabriel Périot, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Maya Deren, Apichatpong Weerasetakhul, Robert Frank, Ivan Ladislav Galeta, Eija-Liisa Athila, Dan Graham, John Latham, David Lamelas, Hugo Santiago, Kaucyila Brooke i Jane Cottis, Jennifer Montgomery, Filipa César, Deimantas Narkevicius, Jonas Mekas, Chris Marker, Sergio Belinchón, John Burgan, A.S.M Kobayashi, Kalup Linzy.

Thursday January 7, 20h Merciless diaries. The 90s: feminine. Anne Charlotte Robertson / Birgit Hein
Sunday January 10, 18h Merciless Diaries. The ‘80s: Queer. Nelson Sullivan
Thursday January 14, 20h Welcome to the Secret Society (I)
Sunday January 17, 18.30h Queer Films. Feedback. Disintegration
Thursday January 21, 20h Hyperbolas of the Grain
Sunday January 24, 18.30h Ways of Living
Thursday January 28, 20h Otherness and fiction
Sunday January 31, 20h Tropical Modernity. The Cinema of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Sunday February 7, 18.30h Against Time I
Thursday February 11, 20h Against Time II
Sunday February 14, 18.30h Against Time III
Thursday February 18, 18.30h Dry Kisses Only
Sunday February 21, 18.30h The Dialectic of the Remake
Thursday February 25, 20h Memory of Berlin
Sunday February 28, 18.30h Benning, Kobayashi and Linzy

All screenings will be in the original version with Catalan subtitles and film format (16/35 mm) unless indicated otherwise. The CCCB reserves the right to modify the programme for reasons of force majeure. Screenings in the Auditorium. Limited capacity. Punctuality is requested.

Thursday January 7, 20h
Merciless diaries. The 90s: feminine. Anne Charlotte Robertson / Birgit Hein

North American Anne Charlotte Robertson films her life since the early 80s, alternating her everyday pain with stays in psychiatric institutions. In Apologies, she obsessively questions her right to do so. Birgit Hein’s Baby I Will Make You Sweat is a no-holds-barred look at sexuality, morality and being a woman. She tells of her trip to Jamaica, meditating on the need to love and be loved.

- Apologies, Anne-Charlotte Robertson. USA, 1983-1990, vídeo, 17 min.
- Baby I will make you sweat, Birgit Hein. Alemania, 1994, 16 mm, 63 min.

Sunday January 10, 18h
Diarios sin piedad. Los 80: Queer. Nelson Sullivan

Nelson Sullivan, a New York artist, died in 1989. During his lifetime, he tirelessly filmed the people and events around him, without editing. Nelson used a hand-held camera and turned his wide-angle lens on himself or whatever he chose to show, sketching a chronicle of the geography of queer artists in the Big Apple in the eighties. What makes his very large body of work, still awaiting discovery, so singular is not just his mastery, virtuosity and his almost carnal fusion with the camera, but his acid, ironic look at an entertaining world that is also full of worries and sudden disappearances.

- Monologue For TV Show, Nelson Sullivan. USA, 1989, vídeo, 10 min.
- Nelson Goes to the Red Zone, Nelson Sullivan. USA, 1989, vídeo, 29 min.
- Gay Day Parade, Nelson Sullivan. USA, 1989, vídeo, 26 min.
- Walk To The East Village, Nelson Sullivan. USA, 1989 vídeo, 24 min.

Thursday January 14, 20h
Welcome to the Secret Society (I)

This programme addresses the concept of the fantastic, conceived as an exploration of a reality that is frequently perceived as dark and disquieting. The first session centres on phantasmal spaces and offers little-known contributions of great directors of experimental film (Brakhage, Ito, Mattuschka), and works by young artists (Prim) or more underground but no less important figures (Dabernig, Worden).

- Introduction to the Secret Society, Fred Worden. 1992, 16 mm, 7 min.
- Creamy Krimi, Isabelle Prim. 2007, 16 mm, 10 min.
- Zone, Takashi Ito. 1995, 16 mm, 12 min.
- Part Time Heroes, Mara Mattushka and Chris Haring. 2007, video, 33 min.
- Jogging, Josef Dabernig. 2000, 35 mm, 11 min.
- Murder Psalm, Stan Brakhage. 1981, 16 mm, silent, 17 min.

Sunday January 17, 18.30h
Queer Films. Feedback. Disintegration

From the dreamlike landscapes of Matthias Müller to the surrealist delirium of David Domingo; from the nostalgia of Ming-Yuen S. Ma to the techno-beat militancy of Virginia Villaplana, and from the ironic intimism of Benning to the humour of Scheirl, Pürrer and Lossier, this programme is an example of the vitality and plurality of the queer aesthetic. They are all run through by an eccentric, anti-establishment sexuality that is the driving force of political struggle, generating impossible dreams and spaces, or as an indefinable yet powerful latency that transforms their setting and dislocates perspective, forcing us to adopt a different viewpoint, both inside and beyond the projection room.

- Sleepy Haven, Matthias Müller. 1993, 16 mm, 14 min.
- Sniff, Ming-Yuen S. Ma. 1997, vídeo, 5 min.
- Slap the Gondola!, Marie Losier. 2009, 16 mm, 22 min.
- Jollies, Sadie Benning. 1990, vídeo, 12 min.
- Retroalimentación, Virginia Villaplana. 1998, vídeo, 4 min.
- Red Cuts and the Space In-Between, Hans Scheirl y Ursula Pürrer. 1984, vídeo, 3 min.
- Girl Games, Hans Scheirl y Ursula Pürrer. 1985, vídeo, 4 min.
- La mansión acelerada, David Domingo. vídeo, 5 min.
- Rayos y centellas, David Domingo. vídeo, 3 min.

Thursday January 21, 20h
Hiperbolas of the grain

A series of films that reduces cinematographic expression and movement to a minimum. Fabulous emulsions at different scales of magnification that exaggerate the particles which go to make up the filmic mass: small points of light and fields of colour. The minimal movements that are manifested in the surface of the image are like the flows of grains of sand in a desert.

- Film for Invisible Ink, case no.71: Base-Plus-Fog, David Gatten. USA, 2006, 16 mm, sin sonido, 10 min.
- Pneuma, Nanathiel Dorsky. USA, 1977-1983, 16 mm, sin sonido, 28 min.
- Alaya, Nanathiel Dorsky. USA, 1976-1987, 16 mm, sin sonido, 28 min.
- Axiomatic Grannularity, Paul Sharits. USA, 1972-73, 16 mm, 20 min.
- Shadow Trap, Greg Pope. UK, 2007, 35 mm, 8 min.

Sunday January 24, 18.30h
Ways of Living

Domestic landscapes: interiors and exteriors of houses where variations in light coexist with objects, children and the camera in a given time span. The places where the camera acts as an instrument, with its different filmic possibilities, forming mosaics of the domestic space: different ways of seeing intimate space and inhabiting it.

- Ventana, Claudio Caldini. Argentina, 1975, vídeo, 4 min.
- Green Curtain, Karen Johannesen. USA, 2002, vídeo, sin sonido, 3 min.
- Views from Home, Guy Sherwin. UK, 2006, vídeo, 12 min.
- Close Quarters, Jim Jennings. USA, 2004, 16 mm, sin sonido, 12min.
- Quartet, Nick Hamlyn. UK, 2007, 16 mm, color, sin sonido, 8 min.
- Metronome, Guy Sherwin. UK, 1975-1988, 16 mm, sin sonido, 3 min.
- Imaginary Light, Andrew Noren. USA, 1995, 16 mm, 32 min.
- Light Speed, Karen Johannesen. USA, 2007, vídeo, sin sonido, 6 min.
- Travelling Light, Jane Aaron. USA, 1985, 16 mm, 3 min.
- Prelude, Guy Sherwin. UK, 1996, 16 mm, 12 min.
- The Back Steps, Leighton Pierce. USA, 2001, vídeo, 5 min.
- Going Back Home, Louise Bourque. USA, 2000, 35 mm, 1 min.

Thursday January 28, 20h
Otherness and fiction

These very recent works in cinema and video move between the indexical nature of the image and abstraction. The celluloid buried in the sea bed by MacLean, Ahwesh’s upside-down orientalism and science-fiction transcendences, noise music taken to Malobi by Russell, the vestiges of the past in Klahr and MarClay’s allusions to lynching in the US provide the stuff of sound and image in this high-voltage session.

- Fore-and-Aft, Sara MacLean. Canada, 2008, 35 mm, 6 min.
- Trypps #6 (Malobi), Ben Russell. USA, 2008, 16 mm, 12 min.
- Trypps #5 (Dubai), Ben Russell. USA, 2008, 16 mm, 3 min.
- False Aging, Lewis Klahr. USA, 2008, video, 15 min.
- Antigenic Drift, Lewis Klahr. USA, 2007, video, 17 min.
- Wednesday Morning Two A.M., Lewis Klahr. USA, 2009, vídeo, 7 min.
- The Third Body, Peggy Ahwesh. USA, 2008, video, 9 min.
- Beirut Outtakes, Peggy Ahwesh. USA, 2008, video, 8 min.
- Sound Over Water, Mary Helena Clark. USA, 2009, 16mm, 6 min.

Sunday January 31, 20h
Tropical Modernity. The Cinema of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

The work of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster has been shown at Documenta in Kassel, the Biennials of Venice and Sao Paulo, and at the Tate Modern, but has been seen little in cinemas. This programme is therefore both an unusual event and a privilege: the session includes her famous urban trilogy, filmed in Tokyo, Hong-Kong and Rio de Janeiro and Central Park, a film that draws together, like an album, 11 short pieces filmed over seven years, about urban experiences and those beyond the city.

- Riyo, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. 1999, vídeo, 10 min.
- Central, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. 2001, vídeo, 11 min.
- Plages, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. 2001, vídeo, 15 min.
- Parc central, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. 2006, vídeo, 50 min.

Sunday February 7, 18.30h
Against time I

Looking beyond narratives that obey linear time, cinema has sought out other forms that accelerate, slow or invert time. Since the Lumière brothers filmed the demolition of a wall and discovered that if it was screened backwards, time could be reversed to rebuild the wall, to Jacobs, who brought digital movement to a photo, or Lockhart, who, in Lunch Break, dilated and transformed the lunch break of some factory workers into slow-motion, hypnotic movement and an aesthetic, critical and melancholy observation on modern work. The session is completed by the premiere in Spain of Exit, the film that complements Lunch Break, which Lockhart filmed to dialogue with the Lumière brothers’ Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory.

- Demolition d’un mur, hermanos Lumière. Francia, 1896, vídeo, 1min 30seg.
- Exit, Sharon Lockhart. USA, 2008, vídeo, 40 min.
- The Discovery, Ken Jacobs. USA, 2008, vídeo, 4 min.
- Lunch Break, Sharon Lockhart. USA, 2008, vídeo, 83 min.

Thursday February 11, 20h
Against time II

Film creates new temporalities that dialogue with, destroy or further pictorial and literary tradition: acceleration, fragmentation, multiplication... The 14 shorts in this programme cross over to propose some very different approaches, entertainments, games and investigations related to time.

- Speed-up Chopin Minutenwalzer Op 64 No1, Ivan Ladislav Galeta. 6 min. - Still Life, Sam Taylor-Wood. 2001, 3 min.
- Lemon, Hollis Frampton. USA, 1969, 16 mm, sin sonido, 7 min.
- Cobra Mist, Emily Richardson. 2008, 6 min.
- Les Berceaux, Jean Epstein. Francia, 1931, 5’, 16 mm
- Vladivostok, F.J.Ossang. 2008, 5 min.
- Under Twilight, Jean-Gabriel Périot. 2005, 5 min.
- La sequenza del fiore di carta, Pier Paolo Pasolini. 1969, 10 min.
- A Study in Choreography for Camera, Maya Deren. USA, 1945, 2 min.
- A Letter to Uncle Boonmee, Apichatpong Weerasetakhul. 2009, 17 min.
- I Remember, Robert Frank. USA, 1996, 5 min.
- TV Ping Pong, Ivan Ladislav Galeta. 1978-1979, 2 min.
- Jos 6 olis 9 / If 6 was 9, Eija-Liisa Athila. 1995, 10 min.
- Past Future Split Attention, Dan Graham. 1972, vídeo, 17 min.

Sunday February 14, 18.30h
Against time III

Borges and his view of time seen through cinema: Invasión, a recently restored cult Argentine film, with screenplay by Borges and Bioy Casares. The session starts with a short film in which John Latham speeds up time to film, in six minutes, page by page, the Encyclopaedia Britannica—one of Borges best loved works—and another in which Lamelas finds a cinematographic equivalent to Borges’ struggle against simultaneity and the succession of time.

- Brittanica, John Latham. 1971, 16mm, 6 min.
- Reading of an extract from “Labyrinths” by J.L.Borges, David Lamelas. 1970, 16 mm, 4 min.
- Invasión, Hugo Santiago. Argentina, 123 min.

Thursday February 18, 18.30h
Dry Kisses Only

Dry Kisses Only uses the post-modern technique of hypertext to take us on a noisy, fun and absolutely euphoric journey through the history of classic cinema, popular culture and street culture, to explore the terrible absence of lesbian subjectivity in the images around us. Women may be the underdogs in the man-woman binomial, but lesbians do not even exist, since a woman who does not expect to spend her life at a man’s side is a fundamental threat to the preservation of the unequal power that pervades our lives.

- Dry Kisses Only, Kaucyila Brooke i Jane Cottis. USA-Alemanya, 1990, vídeo, 75 min.

Sunday February 21, 18.30h
The Dialectic of the Remake

In this remake of the highly controversial Deliverance (1972), by John Boorman, Jennifer Montgomery turns all the film’s actors into women. In this version, Montgomery, Peggy Ahwesh, Jacqueline Goss, Sue Friedrich and other art-house filmmakers take the roles of Burt Reynolds, John Voigt and others. While following the screenplay, the performers introduce their own subjectivity and desires.

- Deliver, Jennifer Montgomery. USA, 2008, vídeo, 92 min.

Thursday February 25, 20h
Memory of Berlin

This session screens a “memory of Berlin” based on the poetic film with which Filipa César evokes the Communist dream of conquering the cosmos, moving on to archive memories of East Germany in Narkevicius’s lyrical compilation of propaganda films from the GDR, a live documentary look at the fall of the wall in works by Jonas Mekas and Chris Marker, and John Burgan’s autobiographical approach.

- Alle der Kosmonauten, Filipa César. 2007, vídeo, 8 min.
- Into the Unknown, Deimantas Narkevicius. 2009, 19 min.
- Destruction of the Berlin Wall, Jonas Meka. USA, 3 min.
- Berlin Ballade 1990, Chris Marker. 1990, 20 min.
- New Rummelsburg, Sergio Belinchón. 2004, vídeo, 1 min.
- Memory of Berlin, John Burgan. 1998, vídeo, 73 min.

Sunday February 28, 18.30h
Benning, Kobayashi y Linzy

Three contemporary video artists present their ludic world of genre-based performance. The frank, stark work of a very young Sadie Benning uses the camera as a mirror to draw us into a solitary world of identity and desire. Linzy acts and directs his own video performances, using the formal principles of the photonovel to satirise his artistic-sexed setting. Alison S. M. +Kobayashi, a young Canadian of Asian extraction, personified a multiplicity of identities as a criticism of the essentialist discourses of genre, class and ethnic group.

- A Place Called Lovely, Sadie Benning. USA, 1991, 14 min.
- The Judy Spots, Sadie Benning. USA, 1995, 13 min.
- From Alex to Alex, A.S.M Kobayashi. Canadá, 2004, 6 min.
- Dan Carter, A.S.M Kobayashi, Canadá, 2006, 14 min.
- The Pursuit of Gay (Happyness), Kalup Linzy, 2006, vídeo, 5 min.
- Conversation wit de Churen V: As Da Art World Might Turn, Kalup Linzy. 2006, vídeo, 11 min.
- Conversations wit da churen III: da Young and da Mess, Kalup Linzy. 2005, 17 min.
- KKQueens Survey, Kalup Linzy. 2005, 8 min.