Neo-Avant Garde

For Isaac, but maybe of interest to others.

Sven-Olov Wallenstein, "Transformative Technologies," Cabinet, Spring 2001

First paragraph: Is the avant-garde dead, defunct, an attitude belonging to a past whose bearings on the present have been lost once and for all? Or does it always await us, coming toward us from a future whose shape is as yet undetermined and open? The first option seems inevitable if we link the idea of the avant-garde to modernism as it exploded on the scene in the 1920s and 30s, and if we see it as a defined and historically circumscribed style with a definite set of questions that can surely no longer be ours within the space of postmodernity, where the artistic gestures of the early twentieth century seem hopelessly naïve. But if we try to detach the impetus of the avant-garde from what has paradoxically enough become its heritage, if we unearth its problems rather than its solutions, then we could perhaps incline towards the second option: the avant-garde is neither alive nor dead, but always there, virtually, waiting to be redefined and reinvented anew.

Post "Beaches of Agnes" Screening

On Sunday I attended the screening of “Beaches of Agnes” which, as mentioned by Jesse in a previous blog, is an autobiographical film by the French film director Agnes Varda. As an audience member having only seen “Cleo from 5 to 7” it was interesting reflecting on the director’s life without history or foreknowledge of her life and career.

I learned that Varda created around 46 Independent films, and from the clips shown throughout the film it seemed as though Varda constructed contemplative narratives discussing social and humanistic issues.

“Beaches of Agnes” is a colorful, whimsical, playful film that discusses heavier topics revolving around memory, time, love, and loss. During the panel session at the end of the film there was a discussion on how Varda’s self-reflection was based off of the people in which she surrounded herself and with whom she had relationships. Naturally, we all are weaved in our individual contexts. However, I wonder how individual they truly are considering that we all experience the same emotions. In the film Varda says “emotions are something we can not control.” John Dewey argued that “art is an exemplary form of human meaning-making” and Mark Johnson argues that “we must realize that aesthetics is about the conditions of experience as such, and art is a culmination of the possibility of meaning in experience.” I guess my main thought is how our individual circumstances evoke emotions. I wonder how as art-makers we attempt to control our individual emotions, in order to transcend them as a means for discussing origin. Is emotion the basis for all art and how is it that art goes from rationalization of emotion only to, hopefully, evoke emotion? Or is this not always the case…

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2063401497/

Alexander Gutke @ MOCAD

Last week I saw a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit featuring work by Alexander Gutke.

From MOCAD's website:
Preoccupied with modes of reproduction, self-reflexivity, illusionism and cinema, the work of Alexander Gutke could be characterized by a kind of mystical materialism. His exploration of these concerns moves into a variegated and allegorical territory whose many terrains include space and the void, animation and illusion, and the micro and the macro. Gutke's meticulous and poetic sensibility is that of an unusual storyteller whose works narrate their own material conditions with a sublime economy. More...

I was left absolutely cold by the work, but very interested in the wall text. I'm struggling with formulating a solid opinion of the show and keep thinking about it...Is anyone familiar with his work?

Beaches of Agnes - Sunday at 5:10

As mentioned and emailed, the Bijou is screening The Beaches of Agnes by Agnes Varda, the internationally beloved and respected French geriatric female filmmaker. She's been making international hits since the French New Wave. She's always fun to watch and so are her movies - art and entertainment, what more could we expect of film?

Also, Beaches has been getting monster reviews - http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/the_beaches_of_agnes_varda

Be there or be square. You can see it between this Thursday and next Wednsday at the Bijou, but the panel discussion - and myself - will be at the Sunday 5:10 showing (panel after movie).

THE BEACHES OF AGNES
Special Screening with Panel Discussion
Sunday, December 6th, 5:10 PM at the Bijou Theater

The Beaches of Agnes
Directed by Agnes Varda
France, 2008, 110 min, French w/ English subtitles, 35mm

Notable French New Wave filmmaker, Agnes Varda, turns the camera on herself in the autobiographical documentary THE BEACHES OF AGNES. Recounting vivid memories of the French film scene, Varda shares stories of various filmmakers including Alain Resnais and her deceased husband, Jacques Demy. THE BEACHES OF AGNES presents a visual scrapbook of Varda's memories, combining film clips, photos, and whimsical animation to tell her life story.

There will be a panel after the screening with members of he Cinema and Comparative Literature Department:
Prof. Steven Ungar
Prof. Sasha Waters Freyer
Andrew Peterson, Ph.D. candidate

Other times for The Beaches of Agnes can be found on Bijou calendars and at our website.

The Bijou Theater is located in the Iowa Memorial Union - Tickets available day of show for $5 - www.bijoutheater.org - 319-335-3258

Review - The Messenger

Not a masterwork but pretty good, The Messenger tells the story of two messengers of the Army's Casualty Notification Service (CNS) – Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) and Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson). CNS officers (acronyms are a shorthand for military perspective in The Messenger) are assigned to tell the news of a soldier's death to the soldier's next of kin (NOK). Montgomery has just returned from a combat tour and was wounded in battle. He is assigned to work with the more experienced Stone. Though somewhat episodic, the majority of The Messenger concerns the relationship between Montgomery and Stone.

Structurally, the narrative of Montgomery and Stone frames a series of smaller narratives. Every time Montgomery or Stone tells a family member a soldier has died, that telling is a small narrative. Each of those smaller narratives is, in a way, contained within the larger narrative of Montgomery and Stone. As a tactic, this narratives within narrative structure allows The Messenger to portray loss of massive scope – news of death comes to many families in many ways, with the narrative of Montgomery and Stone holding everything together. The larger narrative of Montgomery and Stone is engaging, fairly smart, semi-conventional, and extraordinarily well acted. However, the smaller narratives are more forceful. Knowing this, director Oren Moverman allows these smaller narratives to invade the narrative of Montgomery and Stone, and, eventually, the narratives of the wars themselves. About halfway through the movie, while Stone is watching T.V., a single line reminds us that CNS is nationwide: “I think they oughta put every funeral on T.V.” says Stone. But this is not a political movie – this is a movie about loss.

It's also a strangely meta-filmic movie. Montgomery's and Stone's telling of killings is rigidly scripted by the Army, and Montgomery and Stone attempt to perform the script with detachment. Almost all of the performances go somewhat awry – who, after all, could react rationally to the delivery or reception of such news? This self-reference points to the constructed nature of The Messenger. I'm reminded of something the novelist Orhan Pamuk once said - “I write not to tell a story, but to compose a story.” Another, darker, question arises – are Montgomery's and Stone's performances to the families of killed soldiers related to Foster's and Harrelson's – the movie's – performances to us? As The Messenger relates, the actual news of a soldier's death could be related to the family by email or telegram, but a social want has created the CNS and the assignments of Montgomery and Stone. As “Home, Home on the Range” played over the closing credits, I wondered how our society will further process the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as they drag on, becoming more deadly and abstract.

William S. Burroughs - Thanksgiving Prayer

An all-time favorite. Enjoy the break!
 
Thanksgiving Prayer By: William S. Burroughs

Seek Perfection | MySpace Video

Tree Knees

Here are some pictures of some tree knees (found off the internet). Some of Taryn's forms remind me of them. At Caddo Lake in East Texas they are everywhere...it's almost as if you are surrounded by some sort of mythological creatures...and if you look just right, they'll trick you into thinking they are moving :) But I suppose it's just their reflections in the water.