Page 67 - Studio International - March April 1975

`I Got Up At ...'and the time he matter for discussion elsewhere.
got up. The last series is the Also on the jury — Steve Dwoskin,
`I AM STILL ALIVE' telegrams. whose four films won the Solvay
The telegrams contain those Prize in 1967 at Knokke, and
words plus On Kawara and the whose early works established
official information, time, date him clearly as an important
and addresses. On Kawara's film-maker (virtually
work is rigid but simple, the pages unrecognized in the United
of the books have typed States). Harold Szeeman was on
information, A4 size, plastic the jury, noted for his
sleeves and the books are Documenta art exhibitions and
loose-leaf files. The exhibition `When Attitudes become Form'
continued the same utility, show. Dusan Makaveyev, a
simple wooden structures of rather successful sensationalist
Ger van Elk unvarnished pine displayed the film-maker with a film-school
The Symmetry of Diplomacy 1 1971 leaves of the books under glass. notion of how to put a film
90x 120 nun The paintings were hung on the together but a Pepsi advertiser's
Stedelijk in Amsterdam. He is a The On Kawara exhibition was walls of one room. Everything insights into what sells under
Dutch artist who has spent much previously shown at the was in consequential order. consumer capitalism, showed his
of his life in California. (His Kunsthalle in Berne. This Lynda Morris newest film Sweet Movie, which
father is a special-effects man in exhibition organized by was even more exploitative,
the film studios.) With this Kasper Koenig and Gachnang in racist, and sexist than
background he can hardly help Berne has had an important W.R. Mysteries of the Organism,
being an epicurean in a world of influence in Europe in the past more repressed, more épater le
stoics. If you can have paintings few months. It has cleared the air 5th bourgeois. A thoroughly
without subjects, then you can of a lot of the 'new painting' EXPERIMENTAL disgusting film-maker, his
have the subjects of paintings confusion. The exhibition presence at an Experimental film
without painting. A logical presented On Kawara's work FILM festival was a mystery to all. Then
argument, which if he kept other during 1973. He made 85 there was Ed Emshwiller, whose
company would bring him close to Date Paintings. Small flat-grey FESTIVAL Relativity is standard film society
aspects of New Realism. He likes canvases, either 20.5 x 25.5 cms or `underground' fare.
his art to be interesting and his 25.5 x 33.0 cms. They record the at Knokke/Heist,
life to be enjoyable. He is more day on which they were painted in Belgium 2 What was surprising, at a film
the archaeologist than the white figures, like the simplest festival of such past standard, was
missionary. When one is form of sign writing. Each that 95% of the films selected
accustomed to exhibitions which painting has a cardboard box, 1 The Fifth Experimental Film were by no conceivable account
experimental, or original in any
present a continuum or an with a lid lined with a piece of Competition took place from
aspect, van Elk's exhibition is a newspaper from the country in 25 December till 1 January. way. They were standard "story
shock. The shapes are erratic, which he is living. The paintings It happens every four years, but shorts", some a bit surrealistic,
the subjects are eclectic, the are accompanied by the '1973' the last time it occurred was in some a bit erotic, some with a bit
forms are encyclopaedic. The book. The 'Day' section records 1967, when Michael Snow's of fifties underground influence,
undercurrents of basic concerns the number of paintings made in Wavelength won the Grand Prize, but there was literally nothing
are there, but each work needs a the A and B sizes. On the pages of (over 6,000 dollars by current that would have gotten any of the
separate reading. Each work is a calendar he blocks out the dates exchange rates). On the jury had film-makers further in terms of
laboured and finished to the, on which paintings were made, been Shirley Clarke, Very
point where it appears almost stamping A or B to record the Chytilova, Walerian
spontaneous. The ideas range size beside the blank. Two pages Borowczyk, and Edgar Reitz.
from Three Qualities of Light. of blanks give a visual record of About twenty-five years ago,
In a Rustic Californian Mood, the output. Next come the during the first Knokke Festival,
1968-69. The work contains painting's 'Subtitles'. For each eighteen year-old Kenneth
exactly what it suggests, an old month of the year he records the Anger's Fireworks was shown
gas lamp connected to a gas places he stayed, the number of and received a special mention,
cylinder, a bare hanging electric paintings made, the size of the Maya Deren and Gregory
light bulb, and an arty spot-light paintings, the number for that Markopoulos's films were
secured to a pine wood enclosure month, the date, and finally the screened. In 1958 (the four-
which surrounds the other two day of the week it was painted in yearly thing never really
lights. The Symmetry of the language of the country in existed), Agnes Varda, Stan
Diplomacy 1, 1971, is two hand- which it was painted. The last Brakhage were among the
tinted photographs of a piece of information is the prizewinners, with Man Ray,
`refurbished' decor. A replica of subtitle. The next book is 'I Read'. Verese, Alexeieff, Grierson, etc.,
the essence of every official On sheets of squared paper he on the final jury. And then in 1963
diplomatic meeting. In the right- places newspaper cuttings from prizewinners included
hand photo, the artist playing the local newspaper for that day. Vanderbeek, Markopoulos,
the diplomat is seated on the The date is stamped at the top of Vlado Kristl. This year, the final
right, and in the left-hand photo the page. Details of the day of the jury consisted of: P. Adams Sitney
he is seated on the left. The week and the place and the date whose writings on structural film
`other' chair is empty, and the are written in pen on the were instrumental in the
artist gazes from one photo of cuttings. A day missed out is left beginnings of a definition, whose
himself to the other. The last blank with a biro cross. The next book 'Visionary Cinema' clearly
work in the exhibition is van book is 'I Went' which contains establishes the American
Elk's Portrait of Gilbert & xeroxed copies of local maps of film-making as a "new romantic
George, 1974. This is a the area in which he is staying. affirmation in recoiling against
photographic painting montage, He traces a red line over the the tremendously crucial
triangular in shape. Within the routes he takes each day. The aesthetic attack that Warhol
framed triangle, a smaller final book 'I Met' records on made". He is in fact, the perfect
triangle floats in a foggy sky of plain sheets of paper with the exegete of that movement
beige clouds. In the midst of the date stamped at the bottom, a precisely because of his
mist, Gilbert and George are typed list of the people he meets affirmative attitude towards the
standing on solid, but barely that day. When he moves to new American romanticists. The
visible rocks. From legend we another city or country, a grey fact is that structural film never
know that these rocks are the last sheet with the name of the new really was understood in
rocks in England — Lands End. location is inserted. The next America, there are only very
(van Elk suggested that the series of his work is a collection of few American works that can be
perfect article on his work would postcards 'I Got Up'. He sends considered such, namely those of
be a simple arrow pointing at the every day, two picture-postcards Snow and some early Frampton
reproduction.) to friends. The date is stamped at and Zorns Lemma. The more
The Palais des Beaux Arts is the top of the card. His current adequate definition of structural
capacious enough for there to be a address is stamped at the bottom. film is not a romantic one but a Tsuneo Nakai
third exhibition to review. In the middle are the words structural/materialist one, a Four sequences from Alchemy

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