Screening
DRIVEN BY CARS
27 Jul 2007
Event times
6-9 PM
Address
- 26 Lower Clapton Road
- London
- E5 0PD
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Buses 38, 242, 253, 394, , 425, 488
- Homerton tube
- Hackney Central Rail
Driven by Cars, artist film night and artist talk
About
7.00 ' 8.15 pm: Artist-Films - Driven by Carscurated by Ricarda Vidal
Driving can be the escape to freedom, but it can also mean the endless wait in the traffic jam, or the infuriating search for a free parking space. Driving is about motion ' fast or slow-motion ' the horizon racing towards you or stretching away towards infinity, the changing scenery floating by the side window. Driving and what you drive can be a political statement; it can determine how other people see you or how you want to be seen by them. Driving has spawned a whole new world of tarmac and concrete, car parks, flyovers and multilane expressways. It is now so much part of our culture that it is difficult to imagine what life would be like without it. The films selected for Driven by Cars all focus on the car and the way it changes our perception of nature, of culture, of ourselves. They explore the exhilaration of speed and the enchantment of slow-motion, the crash (the explosion!) and the aftermath of the accident. Some of them are serious, others are less so, some are critical, others are celebratory - together they form a tableau of contemporary driving.
8.15 ' 9.00 pm: Driving Artists Talk: Joe Kerr and Andrew Cross
The screening will be followed by a talk about driving, cars and culture, between the artist and curator Andrew Cross and Joe Kerr, Professor at the Royal College of Art and qualified London bus-driver. Andrew Cross has spent most of his life admiring trains, and various forms of road vehicle, and has explored driving and transport in numerous artworks. Rather than in speed, Cross is interested in slow-mo¬tion and in the geometries and formalities of industrial landscapes. Joe Kerr is Head of Department of Critical and Historical Studies at the Royal College of Art. He has published widely on architecture and urbanism, roads and car culture. In 2004 he combined critical analysis with practical research and realised a boyhood dream qualifying as bus-driver on the old Routemaster. He continues to drive London buses.