Xcèntric 2019
The rules of playing games
The CCCB's cinema
Audiovisuals
Playing games is an inextricable part in the vital development of people. As Johan Huizinga pointed out in Homo Ludens (1938), the act of playing is intrinsic to the unfolding of cultural practices. Experimental film combines rules, regulations, instructions and constraints with metalinguistic proposals that sound out logics ranging from convivial to metaphysical. This session features unusual games denoting that the entertainment produced is recreated with cinematic tools.
Some pieces represent relaxing pastimes which end up being completely ingenious (Jeu, Playing Dice). Others set recreational concepts aimed at our intellect through language, photography, music (Associations, The Song Remains the Same). They implicate all the audience, stimulating them to build up connections that are more or less fun.
Visual interpretation also underpins virtuous work with regard to the camera and the montage (Spacey, Analogies). They’re manoeuvres that articulate time and movement, hiding the mechanism of their configuration. Finally, some of the films in the programme reveal amusements which include behaviour that must be coded (Play, Gurtrug). If the former achieves performances with audience reaction, the second reveals a collective and unconnected distraction which is not devoid of revelry.
Play, Christoph Girardet y Matthias Müller, 2003, 16 mm transferred to digital file, 7 min; Playing Up, Ian Helliwell, 2007, digital projection (orig. Super 8), 3 min;Jeu (Play), Georges Schwizgebel, 2006, 35 mm, 4 min; Playing Dice, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, 1972, 16 mm, silent, 5 min; Codes of Conduct, David Rimmer, 1997, 16 mm, 5 min; Associations, John Smith, 1975, digital projection, 6 min; The Song Remains the Same, Mark Toscano, 2014, 16 mm, 4 min; Analogies, Peter Rose, 1977, 16 mm, 14 min; Spacy, Takashi Ito, 1981, 16 mm, 9 min; Gurtrug Nr 1, Werner Nekes, 1967, 16 mm, 14 min
Directors: Werner Nekes, Christoph Girardet, Matthias Müller, Ian Helliwell, Georges Schwizgebel, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, David Rimmer, John Smith, Mark Toscano, Peter Rose, Takashi Ito
This activity is part of Xcèntric 2019
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Érik Bullot, Su Friedrich, Storm de Hirsch, Edward Owens, Amy Halpern, Masao Adachi, Igor and Gleb Aleinikov, Yevgeny Yufit, John Smith, Karpo Godina, Noémia Delgado or Juan Bufill are some of the filmmakers featured in our programme January- February 2020 of Xcèntric.
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