ART+FILM

ART+FILM

ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) presents ART+FILM, a free monthly program featuring one-off film screenings with accompanying talks.

Presented in the ACMI Cinemas, ART+FILM showcases short and feature-length films by leading Australian and international artists, shedding light on the space where artistic practice and film intersect. With a focus on single-channel works that harness the unique characteristics and conventions of cinema, the program comprises internationally significant works from the ever-expanding field of artist films. The program stems from popular recent screenings and talks at ACMI by the artists Pierre Huyghe (2015), Luther Price (2014), Tacita Dean (2013) and William Kentridge (2012). 

Through new partnerships with galleries, museums, commissioning bodies and festivals both here and abroad, ACMI's ART+FILM series brings important artist films, and artists, to Melbourne audiences. The accompanying lectures, panel discussions, Q&As and artist talks offer further insights into these rarely screened works. 

2016 has already seen two ART+FILM events. In January, Chelsea Girls delved into Andy Warhol's art house classic, with a discussion presented in partnership with The National Gallery of Victoria. In February, Daniel Crooks on Art and (the Manipulation of) Time looked at four video works by the internationally acclaimed, Melbourne-based video artist, and coincided with the opening of Crooks' exhibition Phantom Ride, the second Ian Potter Moving Image Commission currently showing at ACMI.

In coming months ART+FILM will present Taiwanese conceptual artist Chen Chieh-jen's seminal film Factory (2003), in partnership with the 20^th Biennale of Sydney,  as well as two intense, hyper-sensory videos by New Zealand-born artist Steve Carr, in partnership with the Centre for Contemporary Photography.  ACMI's May ART+FILM offering will comprise highlights from Carriageworks' 24 Frames per Second exhibition, with each work highlighting the exhilarating physicality of dance as it is presented on screen. 

ACMI's monthly ART+FILM program will continue to provide unique insights into the work of local and international artists. Sessions are free, but bookings are required.

Chen Chieh-jen Presents: Factory (2003)  

Tuesday 22 March, 6:30pm

Presented in association with the 20th Biennale of Sydney

Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-jen will present his seminal work Factory (2003), followed by a Q&A. Factory is a 30-minute silent film made in collaboration with workers from the Lien Fu garment factory, seven years after its closing. The film captures post-industrial decay in Taiwan, but is also a meditation on the passing of time, offering an elegiac commentary on human resilience in the wake of economic advancement.

Chen Chieh-jen (b. 1960) has been a key figure in the development of Taiwanese conceptual art since the early 1980s. A self-taught artist, he was a prominent figure during Taiwan's martial law period, challenging the limits of expression with guerrilla performances, underground exhibitions, and interventions in public spaces. He is now best known for ambitious video works that directly address social and political upheavals in contemporary Taiwan, and is particularly concerned with individual experience within communal settings, such as prisons, factories and places of industry. Chen's films typically rely on the conventions of documentary filmmaking to elegantly weave together real and historical fiction, past and present, reality and illusion.

ACMI gratefully acknowledges the support of the 20th Biennale of Sydney in bringing Chen Chieh-jen to Australia. This event is made possible with generous assistance from the Nelson Meers Foundation. 

Steve Carr: Stretching Time

Tuesday 26 April, 6:30pm

Presented in partnership with the Centre for Contemporary Photography   

Join New Zealand artist Steve Carr in this intense, hyper-sensory exploration of his High Definition videos, Dead Time (2012) and Bubble, Cactus (2013). Carr's work navigates the broad possibilities of film beyond traditional linear narratives, and these two works present a profound transformation of material. Together they draw into focus the connection between our sense of time and space, and the complex relationships between materiality, magic, performance, and cinema.

Represented by Michael Lett, Auckland and STATION, Melbourne, Carr has had work in many major New Zealand and international exhibitions. He has been a Lecturer in Fine Arts and Photography at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, Auckland, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Film at the University of Canterbury, School of Fine Arts, Christchurch, New Zealand.

This event coincides with Steve Carr's major solo exhibition A Manual for Small Archives, at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne. 

Highlights from Carriageworks' 24 Frames per Second exhibition

Monday 23 May, 6:30pm

Presented in collaboration with Sydney's Carriageworks

24 Frames per Second was an ambitious exhibition of 24 newly commissioned moving-image installations, presented at Sydney's Carriageworks in 2015. For ART+FILM, ACMI presents a suite of four artist films exploring dance as a fundamentally collaborative medium: Push (2015) by Kate Murphy (Australia), 1 or 2 Tigers (2015) by Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore), The Fourth Notebook (2015) by Sriwhana Spong (New Zealand), and at least for a while anyway (2015) by Nat Cursio & Daniel Crooks (Australia).

Following the screening, join curator and writer Nina Miall from Carriageworks, and artist, choreographer and curator Nat Cursio, as they discuss the project. The conversation will address the commissioning process, and interdisciplinary collaboration in contemporary art.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

ACMI's ART+FILM series is an ongoing monthly program. Sessions are free, but bookings are required. Session times and dates available here: acmi.net.au/art-film