Basis voor Actuele Kunst - BAK, Utrecht - Gallery news: Cinematic Narratives from Elsewhere: The Political Carnivalesque, 19.11.2011

Cinematic Narratives from Elsewhere: The Political Carnivalesque, 19.11.2011

Glauber Rocha, Entranced Earth, film still

The fourth instalment of the biweekly film-based program, Cinematic Narratives from Elsewhere, entitled The Political Carnivalesque, focuses on the work of Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha (1939–1981). A fragment from Rocha's film The Age of the Earth, 1980, is included in the concurrent exhibition at BAK, Spacecraft Icarus 13. Narratives of Progress from Elsewhere and appears alongside three others from films by non-Western directors each of whom use cinema to provide alternative visions of resistance to Western-led drives of modernity. Rocha's film specifically critiques Western imperialist notions of modernity and progress that guided development in post-WWII Latin America following decolonization.

This session, The Political Carnivalesque, moves forward with these ideas and features a screening of Rocha's early film, Entranced Earth, 1967, as well as a lecture by artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh, who draws on her interest in cinematic form, destabilizing established meanings, and re-reading colonial histories, to contextualize his work. The cinematic language of Rocha's films, as van Oldenborgh's lecture explores, pays homage to European filmmakers such as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Jean-Luc Godard, while remaining unique in its experimental rigor and perspective that gazes out from Brazil's formerly colonized terrain. Rocha communicates an array of forbidden themes including social inequality, political corruption, and the economic exploitation of Brazil by foreign powers. In particular, Entranced Earth employs the style of a chaotic political drama situated in the fictive Latin American country of Eldorado in the late 1960s to comment on burning political issues. Filmed during the US-backed Brazilian military dictatorship, Entranced Earth raises questions about ethical and political struggles as it follows a disillusioned poet and journalist who is caught between two positions: support a populist governor or stand behind a conservative president backed by revolutionary forces.

Film screening, Glauber Rocha, Entranced Earth, 1967, 106 min., and a lecture by Wendelien van Oldenborgh (artist, Rotterdam) on the work of Rocha

The program will be followed by drinks at BAK. Reservations are required; please send an e-mail to: info@bak-utrecht.nl to reserve a seat.

Upcoming event for Cinematic Narratives from Elsewhere

3 December 2011, 14.00–17.00 hrs, Revisions of African Representation, film afternoon curated by Kiluanji Kia Henda (artist, Luanda)

Venue for public program activities
Het Utrechts Archief
Hamburgerstraat 28
3512 NS Utrecht (around the corner from BAK)

Visiting address for Spacecraft Icarus 13
BAK, basis voor actuele kunst
Lange Nieuwstraat 4
3512 PH Utrecht

BAK opening hours
Wednesday–Saturday 12.00–17.00 hrs
Sunday 13.00–17.00 hrs

Entrance fee for exhibition and/or public program
€ 4,00
discount: € 2,00
BOOKS@BAK members: free
group visit with guided tour: € 4,00

The research exhibition Spacecraft Icarus 13 and the accompanying public program are organized within the framework of the project FORMER WEST, an international research, education, publishing, and exhibition undertaking (2008–2014), www.formerwest.org.

For further information, please visit: www.bak-utrecht.nl.

Also in Utrecht:

Culturele Zondagen: Klaas en Maarten pakken uit
11.11.–13.11.11
http://www.culturelezondagen.nl/

The Grand Domestic Revolution – User’s Manual
Casco – Office for Art, Design and Theory
06.11.11–26.02.12
http://www.cascoprojects.org/gdr/

Gomorrah Girl. Valerio Spada
Fotodok
27.10.-27.11.11
http://www.fotodok.org/

Translation Station #4. Nikos Doulos & Joao Evangelista
Expodium Kanaleneiland
http://www.expodium.nl/