About
The Showroom is pleased to announce that its new building opens with the second part of The Otolith Group's first solo exhibition in London, 'A Long Time Between Suns'. Following the first instalment of the exhibition at Gasworks in February 2009, part two of the exhibition will premiere The Otolith Group's new film 'Otolith III' (HD, colour, sound, 45 mins, 2009).
Informed by Satyajit Ray's unmade film 'The Alien' (1967) and Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'Appunti per un film sull'India' (1968), 'Otolith III' is a single screen projection that replays Ray's unrealised science fiction as a series of competing past potential futures. As with Part 1 at Gasworks, it will be situated in a new installation conceived and designed by Will Holder. 'Otolith III' is accompanied by 'Otolith Timeline' (video, colour, 30 minutes, 2003) which situates The Otolith Trilogy in a speculative history of the 20th and 21st Century. The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of events, including a seminar with The Otolith Group and discussions with filmmaker Eyal Sivan and Bidoun magazine.
A new Otolith Group monograph designed by Will Holder has been edited as an archival assemblage that links the two stages of the exhibition. The monograph contains an extensive conversation with the artists and a new text by Jean Matthee. During the exhibition,The Showroom's upper space will be configured to facilitate the monograph's final phase of production, before its launch on 17 October. The Otolith Group monograph is published by Sternberg Press in collaboration with The Showroom and Gasworks, London, MACBA, Barcelona, and F.G.C.-Center of Research on Contemporary Art, Trento.
The Otolith Group was formed in 2002 by London-based artists Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar. Their works include the films 'Otolith I' (2003), 'Otolith II' (2007), 'Nervus Rerum' (2008), the thirteen monitor installation 'Inner Time of Television' (2007), the curation of the exhibition 'The Ghosts of Songs: The Film Art of The Black Audio Collective', exhibited at FACT, Liverpool and Arnolfini, Bristol in 2007 and the co-curation of 'Three Early Films: Harun Farocki' at Cubitt (2009) and 'Against What? Against Whom?' (2009) in collaboration with Tate Modern and Raven Row (2009). 'Otolith III' is co-produced by The Showroom, Gasworks and Il Trifoglio Nero and is supported by a grant from Film London.
Will Holder is a designer and writer based in London. He recently curated 'Talk Show' at the ICA, and is editor of FR DAVID, published by de Appel, Amsterdam. He is currently editing and designing a biography of American composer Robert Ashley (with Alex Waterman), and rewriting William Morris' 'News from Nowhere (An epoch of rest)' into a guide for design education and practise set in 2135.
For further information please contact Natasha Tebbs at natasha@theshowroom.org.
'A Long Time Between Suns' is supported by Arts Council England, Outset, Film London, and the members of The
