The MAB Film Exercise - THE AWKWARD SCENE

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The MAB Film Exercise A programme of monthly screenings to exercise ideas in and around artists' film 18.30hrs Wednesday 7 April Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol, BS1 4QA FREE but booking recommended (0117 917 2300) The Awkward Scene Andrea Büttner, Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys, Laura Horelli Curated by Richard Birkett Media Art Bath is pleased to welcome Richard Birkett, curator at the ICA London to THE MAB FILM EXERCISE. Richard's programme, The Awkward Scene considers the methodologies and artifacts of moving image production in relation to the social experience of emotional connection and disconnection. The works screened depict the awkwardness inherent in the presence of the personal in the public realm; in differing ways they locate this sentiment as an active vector within the production of art and the social relations enacted through it. Videos by Andrea Büttner, Laura Horelli, and Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys function through distinct genres of documentary, the televisual, and the dramatic vignette. The artists use these familiar formats both as barriers and conduits to the individuals who form the subject of their works, including family members and a closed order of Carmelite nuns. At the centre of each work is the depiction of a creative ritual; invested with conspicuous levels of belief and symbolism these actions — and the filmmakers' relationship to them — become unsettling and provocative. By inviting curators to present a programme of artists' film, THE MAB FILM EXERCISE seeks to address both the diverse potential for artists' film as a form and a sense of the current urgency, social or political timeliness in the work (of both curator and artist). Produced and presented by Media Art Bath: www.mediaartbath.org.uk