Simon Faithfull / Obiger LICHTSPIELE 

About

The film ‘0º00 Navigation Part I’ shows an obsessive and deranged journey exactly along the Greenwich Meridian. Always seen from behind, a figure swims out of the sea where the 0º00’00” line of longitude hits the south-coast of Britain. The figure emerges out of the water carrying a GPS device and using this, then proceeds to walk directly north along the 0º line. Any obstacle encountered is negotiated and he gradually makes his way up through southeast Britain, through London, the Midlands and ultimately re-enters the sea at Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, where he slowly swims away into the North Sea. In 0º00 Navigation a hypothetical construct of geography that is is treated as if it were a real phenomenon – a path mapped out to follow. The Greenwich meridian bisects southern England because it was here that it was fabricated out of treaties, maps and the mechanics of colonial, naval power.

Simon Faithfull b.1966, UK; lives and works in Berlin.
Simon Faithfull’s wide-ranging practice is well known internationally and his artworks are represented in many public collections including the Pompidou Centre, France and The Government Art Collection, UK. Faithfull studied at Central St.Martins and Reading University and is also a professor at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London. Recent exhibitions include solo presentations at Galerie Polaris, Paris, Naturkunde Museum in Berlin, and The Exchange in Penzance, UK. His practice, combines video, digital-drawing, writing and performance and has been described as an attempt to understand, to test and to explore the planet as a sculptural object.