Curated by Eugeni Bonet

From 24 May to 13 July 2003, the Museum am Ostwall Dortmund presents the exhibition On Translation: The Museum. The exhibition comprises around 50 projects by the artist Antoni Muntadas, born in Barcelona in 1942 and living in New York since 1971. The focus of the exhibition is Muntadas’ ongoing series “On Translation”, initiated in 1995.

As part of the exhibition, a film and video programme will take place from 4–6 July at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences, Department of Design, curated by film scholar, filmmaker and Muntadas specialist Eugeni Bonet (Barcelona).

The programme functions, on the one hand, as an extension of the exhibition, providing a platform for discussion around questions of translation, language and subjectivity in a media-connected world. On the other hand, it represents a translation of the works presented in the museum into a cinematic context – one that simultaneously calls for their reinterpretation.

The film selection places Muntadas’ video works in dialogue with experimental and documentary works by filmmakers such as Hollis Frampton, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Peter d’Agostino and others.

A central theme running through Bonet’s selection is the role of language as a means of producing and levelling cultural difference. Through its circulation within mass media, language creates and transforms reality while regulating processes of communication as well as inclusion and exclusion. The films presented here explore the space between translation, transfer and mediation and their counterpart: the untranslatable, deviation and silence.

Venue

Dortmund University of Applied Sciences
Department of Design
Max-Ophüls-Platz 2, Dortmund

Directions

U41 / 45 / 47 / 49 to Stadtgarten
U42 to Kreuzstraße

Admission

Single ticket: €2.50 / €1.50
Festival pass: €15 / €10 (including exhibition admission)
Exhibition: €5 / €2

Information

T/F: +49 (0)231 88 20 240

A project by

medien_kunst_netz dortmund

In cooperation with

Dortmund University of Applied Sciences
Department of Design

Curator

Eugeni Bonet

Assistance

Katrin Mundt, Uwe Gorski

Exhibition

Muntadas. On Translation: The Museum
24 May – 13 July 2003
Museum am Ostwall Dortmund
Ostwall 7

Patron

Marianne Wendzinski, Mayor of the City of Dortmund

Supported by

City of Dortmund
Ministry for Urban Development, Housing, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Kunststiftung NRW
Sparkasse Dortmund

Programme

Friday, 4 July

7 pm

Between the Lines

Muntadas, 1979, Beta, 26 min

Between the Lines examines the “invisible mechanisms” that control the circulation and reception of information in the media.

“In television, words and images are perceived simultaneously; we have no time to reflect while absorbing the information provided by the moving image.”
— Muntadas

TransmissionS

Peter d’Agostino, 1985–90, Beta, 28 min

Combining allegory, documentary, science and autobiography, TransmissionS explores the history of communication technologies in the 20th century through a collage of images and sounds.

8:30 pm

El Livahpla: Waking Dream

Chip Lord, 2000, Beta, 12 min

“El Livahpla deals with the way in which we ‘normal’ people are surrounded by architecture and technology. Through the lens of Alphaville, the film looks into a past that is the present and shows a future that resembles the past.”
— Lord

Involuntary Conversion

Jeanne C. Finley, 1991, Beta, 10 min

Finley’s video combines concepts from official media rhetoric with a slow-motion collage of military imagery. Through this juxtaposition, the work traces the media mechanisms that transform urban spaces into zones of permanent, latent threat.

Cross-Cultural Television

Muntadas / Hank Bull, 1987, Beta, 35 min

Cross-Cultural Television examines television as a product of the “cosmetic treatment” and “packaging” of information and its processing by a chain of independent agents: camera operators, correspondents, editors, broadcasters, satellite transmission, presenters – and finally us, the viewers.

Saturday, 5 July

11 am

On Translation: The Museum

Guided tour of the exhibition
Museum am Ostwall, Ostwall 7, Dortmund

2 pm

Language Lessons

Steve Hawley / Tony Steyger, 1995, Beta, 35 min

There are more than two thousand constructed languages, only a few of which are still spoken today. Through interviews and archival material, Language Lessons explores the history and present of languages such as Esperanto, Iso and Volapük.

Poto and Cabengo

Jean-Pierre Gorin, 1978, 16mm, 73 min

Gorin’s documentary about twin sisters who developed their own language explores the nature of communication and the “reality” produced through language.

4 pm

Watching the Press / Reading Television

Muntadas, 1980–81, Beta, 10 min

In his investigation of reading and viewing information, Muntadas contrasts blurred television images with close-ups of newspaper pages. The juxtaposition demonstrates the ability of images to manipulate, crop and restrict information.

Zorn’s Lemma

Hollis Frampton, 1970, 16mm, 60 min

Deconstructing the alphabet as a model, this three-part film explores the linguistic and psychological dimensions of language. It represents a radical example of reduced cinema freed from fixed meaning.

Pierre Vallières

Joyce Wieland, 1972, 16mm, 35 min

The film focuses on Pierre Vallières, a member of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ), who became known internationally through his book White Niggers of America about French-speaking Canadians.

6 pm

Marseille: Mythes et Stéréotypes

Muntadas, 1995, Beta, 53 min

The film confronts the inhabitants’ view of Marseille – the internal perspective of the city as myth – with the external view of outsiders, represented through stereotypes.

Break / Dinner

8 pm

Bienvenido Mr. Marshall

Luis G. Berlanga, 1952, 16mm, 95 min

A Marshall Plan delegation travels through Spain. The inhabitants of Villar del Río decide to transform their poor village into an Andalusian model town in order to encourage generous support from their American visitors.

Sunday, 6 July

11 am

Liège 12/9/77

Muntadas, 1977, Beta, 18 min

Produced for Belgian television, this video presents Belgium as a paradigmatic case of a multilingual, telemedia-connected culture.

L’Argent fait le bonheur

Robert Guédiguian, 1993, 35mm, 90 min

A feature film about social outsiders living on the margins of metropolitan areas, exploring possibilities of escaping cycles of violence, drugs and crime.

Films and videos by

Luis G. Berlanga (ES)
Hank Bull (CA)
Peter d’Agostino (US)
Jeanne C. Finley (US)
Hollis Frampton (UK)
Jean-Pierre Gorin (FR)
Robert Guédiguian (FR)
Steve Hawley (US)
Chip Lord (US)
Muntadas (ES/US)
Tony Steyger (UK)
Joyce Wieland (CA)