Kino Raum (1) is the first in a series of collaborative exhibition events by Jann Clavadetscher and Rouzbeh Rashidi. The practice of both artists is rooted in experimental cinema, and Kino Raum will explore and dissect the concept of the cinema-space, both physical and mental. Using the gallery as a laboratory of ‘cinemas’, it will encompass not only traditional projection and gallery installation, but will also address the material and dematerialisation of the filmic image, inviting spectators to consider the history of film from its celluloid origins to its current digital state.

Appropriately, Kino Raum (1) will open with a projection of Clavadetscher and Rashidi’s collaborative feature film Jean Speck (1860-1933) (2011), named in honour of the man who opened Zurich’s first cinema. The material origins of cinema will be evoked by Clavadetscher’s expanded cinema performance Atlantik Film, which will involve the exposure of camera-less film in front of the audience. And a selection of works from Rashidi’s ongoing personal digital cinema project Homo Sapiens Project will stand as one artist’s probing look at where the ever-pressing question ‘what is cinema?’ has arrived today.

Schedule:

Wednesday May 15th:

6pm screening films
7:30pm performance

Thursday May 16th:

7pm screening of the film made in the perfomance the day before


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Short synopsis of the shown films:

Jean Speck (1860-1933):
Little is known of Jean Speck (1860-1933) beyond the fact that he opened Zurich’s first cinema. Rouzbeh Rashidi and Jann Clavadetscher consider the flittering black and white ghosts and shadows that he left in his wake in their phantasmagorical experimental feature film. This journey through a cinematic night probes the very essence of the cinematic image.

Atlantik Film (Jann Clavadetscher):
Atlantik Film started off as a project called Die Belichtung (‘The Exposure’) where an audience in absolute darkness attempted to shine light onto part of an unexposed film roll. A match was struck and for this short moment audience and cinema became one. Kino Raum (1) will be the continuation of this Exposure Project. This event will take place in two parts: Day one, the film is exposed to light. Day two, the film will return from the Laboratory and be projected.

Homo Sapiens Project (Rouzbeh Rashidi):
Homo Sapiens Project are highly experimental works, part cryptic film diaries and part impressionistic portraits of places and people, and often suffused with an eerie sense of mystery reminiscent of horror cinema. From highly composed and distantly framed meditations to frenetically flickering plunges into the textural substance of moving images, the restless creativity of this vision of life as a cinematic laboratory is never short of surprising. Encompassing everything from documentary monologues to found footage, Rashidi constantly strives to expand his filmmaking palette while putting his unmistakable stamp on whatever footage passes through his hands.