An exhibition exploring art and cinema at the Irish Museum of Modern Art

An exhibition which explores the unique relationship between art and cinema opens to the public in the New Galleries at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham, Dublin 8, on Saturday 22 June 2013. IMMA invited artists Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Cerith Wyn Evans to exhibit their work and explore concepts of the poetic and imagination that together make up the cinematic experience, thereby investigating the relationships and influence of film. Through a series of conversations, Gonzalez-Foerster and Wyn Evans explored this influence of the cinematic as a theme for the show, and then expanded the exhibition through selected diverse works from filmmakers, writers and artists. The selection of installations, video, film, painting, text and events showcases the long-standing legacy of cinema as a source of inspiration for artists since its formation. The exhibition presents a dialogue with cinema that reveals the rich interplay between the two genres. 

Cloud Illusions I Recall features works that span generations and includes some of the most important artists of recent times – Marcel Broodthaers, James Coleman, Peter Doig, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Lady Clementina Hawarden, Chris Marker, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Allen Ruppersberg, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Andrey Tarkovsky and Cerith Wyn Evans. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Irish Film Institute and is supported by the French Embassy in Ireland and the Institut Français.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster explores cinematic conventions, temporality and subjective experience; her short films and installations recreate specific moments in which individuals intersect with places – highlighting the individual traces of cultural and social contexts. Her quiet, intimate interrogation of contemporary urban life spills into her conversations and her selection of art works with Cerith Wyn Evans for the exhibition. Wyn Evans’s work stems from his interest in language and communication. He uses found fragments from literature, philosophy and film that he distils into a distinct aesthetic. His use of repetition and elliptical meaning in his work indicates endless possible readings. This is echoed by his choice of (artistic and literary) quotations replete with both classical and personal implications.

Works included in the exhibition range from film posters painted by Peter Doig for his weekly film club in Trinidad; a video projection, Ligne de Foi, 1991, by James Coleman; Polaroid photographs by film director Andrey Tarkovsky, which were selected by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster for their poetic representation of landscape; photographs presenting an example of early self-cinema by Victorian photographer Lady Clementina Hawarden; and the screening of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s iconic The Red Shoes, 1948. This exhibition has been co-curated by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Cerith Wyn Evans and Rachael Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions at IMMA.

Two new works have been specially created for the exhibition, both performed on the opening night Friday 21 June, at 6.30pm a choral performance conceived by Wyn Evans taking Samuel Beckett’s Imagination Dead Imagine, 1965, as its foundation, with annotation by Leo Chadburn and performed by Silver Kites. At 7pm the premiere of a unique performance by Gonzalez-Foerster based on her ongoing work, M.2062, a fragmented opera that started during the Memory Marathon, 2012, at the Serpentine Gallery, London. This performance stands as a moment within a body of work by Gonzalez-Foerster which is centrally concerned with literature and musical adventures in the spirit of Werner Herzog’s epic 1982 film Fitzcarraldo and King Ludwig II of Bavaria’s fascination with Wagner.

Gonzalez-Foerster has also curated a selection of films by Chris Marker which will be screened at the Irish Film Institute starting with Marker’s acclaimed film essay La Jetée, 1962, on Saturday 22 June. The screening will take place following a panel discussion, presented in partnership with the Irish Film Institute. This event opens a Chris Marker Screening Series at IFI and includes a screening of Sans Soleil, 1983, on Sunday 23 June.

Cloud Illusions I Recall, takes its title from Joni Mitchell’s 1969 classic song Both Sides, Now. IMMA’s Head of Exhibitions Rachael Thomas explains “Mitchell’s lyrics contain three main themes: clouds, love and life. She saw all three of these things from both sides, and in her poetic lyrics she recalls the confusion that is a part of every human life. Both Joni Mitchell’s song and the project here at IMMA possibly allude to being both behind and in front of the camera, both artist and art work – a situation made more complex by the spectator’s understanding of this”.

An exclusive limited edition print has been created by artist Peter Doig for the Irish Museum of Modern Art on the occasion of Cloud Illusions I Recall, and is available from the Museum shop. Price €80.00.

A fully-illustrated artists’ book published by IMMA will accompany the exhibition, including texts by Cerith Wyn Evans and Rachael Thomas. Price €12.00.

Talks and Events Progamme
There is an extensive talks and events programme accompanying this exhibition which draws on the cinematic impulses of contemporary artists, addressing the cultural potency of cinema’s social, psychological and dissemination structures in art, film and everyday life.

Discussion + Screening |
Dominque Gonzalez-Foerster on Chris Marker
Saturday 22 June, 1.00pm, Irish Film Institute, Eustace St, Dublin 2
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Rachael Thomas and others discuss the artist’s interest in the influential work of film essayist Chris Marker, and her choice of films for the Chris Marker Screening Series at the IFI. This is followed by the first screening of Marker’s acclaimed film La Jetée, 1962. This event is in collaboration with the Irish Film Institute.

Lecture | Cinema as Art Project
Sunday 7 July, 3.00pm, the North Range, IMMA
Maeve Connolly (writer and Lecturer, IADT) presents a lecture on the cinematic turn in contemporary art practice theorised through reference to a variety of projects. Connolly addresses the attraction of social forms of the cinematic in public art, through reference to exhibition histories and practices associated with the movie theatre and art museum.

Artists Discussion | My Cinematic Impulse
Wednesday 9 July, 5.30pm, the North Range, IMMA
This discussion explores the cinematic impulses of Irish film artists and makers to address a new generation’s nostalgic view of a vanishing medium of the cinema canon. Exploring the complex and ever evolving relationship of art and film, practitioners recall first memories and experiences of film and discuss the gradual absorption of the cinematic language in their own work. Speakers include artists Ronan McCrea, Jaki Irvine, Clare Langan, and curator Cliodhna Shaffrey.

Lecture | Cinema fever in the everyday world
Wednesday 17 July, 5.30pm, the North Range, IMMA
This talk gives a historical perspective on the infectious status and relationship of the still, moving and cinematic image in everyday culture. Examining cinema’s fever as a mass medium for artists to utilise, this talk explores changing modes of film distribution and reception from popular, mass and viral cultures, to recent waves of film clubs and artists’ collectives. Presented by Martin McCabe (Lecturer in Photography, DIT), and Tony Tracy (Lecturer in Film, Huston School of Film and Digital Media, NUI Galway).

Artist Response | Dennis McNulty
Friday 26 July, 1.00pm, New Galleries, IMMA
Artist Dennis McNulty presents a response to the exhibition Cloud Illusions I Recall.

Booking is essential for all talks. For free tickets and a full programme of talks and events visit www.imma.ie/talksandlectures

The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Irish Film Institute and is supported by the French Embassy in Ireland www.ambafrance-ie.org and the Institut Français.

Cloud Illusions I Recall continues to 25 August 2013. Admission is free.

Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday: 10am – 5.30pm
except Wednesday: 10.30am – 5.30pm
Sunday and Bank Holidays: 12noon – 5.30pm
Monday: Closed

For further information and images please contact Monica Cullinane or Patrice Molloy at Tel: +353 1 612 9900, Email: [email protected]

7 June 2013