* The conversation with William E. Jones and Patrick Watkins, moderated by Bige Örer (the director of Istanbul Biennial), was held on Sunday April 10th at Salon.
Untitled (Film), organized as a collaboration between Istanbul Biennial and Istanbul Film Festival, is a cinematic preview of the 12th Istanbul Biennial. This partnership to be realized within the framework of the 30th Istanbul Film Festival stems from the desire to widen the Istanbul Biennial beyond its usual focus on the visual arts into a larger cultural manifestation.
The 12th Istanbul Biennial (September 17-November 13, 2011) will explore the relationship between art and politics, focusing on works that are both formally innovative and politically outspoken. The work of the Cuban-American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) is a clear example of this kind of artistic practice, and a primary inspiration for the project.
The 10 featured films in this program are likewise explicitly political. Each film also offers, in its own way, an aesthetic reconsideration of the formal conventions of its medium.
The 12th Istanbul Biennial will include five group shows and approximately 45 solo presentations. The titles of the five sections of the film program to be realized within the framework of 30th Istanbul Film Festival correspond to the titles of the five sections of the group shows in the 12th Istanbul Biennial: "Untitled" (Passport), "Untitled" (Ross),"Untitled" (Death by Gun), "Untitled" (Abstraction), and "Untitled" (History). Please clik here for details.
Panel Discussion
The conversations with William E. Jones (director of Massillon, 1991) and Patrick Watkins (editor, casting director, and stage manager of La Commune (Paris 1871), 2000) will specifically center on the films Massillon and La Commune (Paris 1871). Like the 12th Istanbul Biennial, these films address the often-difficult relationships between politics and aesthetics by looking at subjects such as violence and war, national and sexual identity, abstraction, and history. William E. Jones and Patrick Watkins in conversation with Jens Hoffmann (co-curator of the 12th Istanbul Biennial):
Sunday, April 10, 16:30
Salon (Nejat Eczacıbaşı Binası, Sadi Konuralp Cad. No.5 Şişhane 34433 Istanbul)