Oporto apresenta #29: Voyage to the Center of the Phone Lines
Friday, October 4th 2012, 22:30h
Oporto, Salvador Correia de Sá, 42, 2 frente, 1200-399 Lisboa

"Voyage to the Center of the Phone Lines" by Michel Auder
Analog video, color, sound, 53', 1993

Voyage to the Centre of the Phone Lines borrows its title from Jules Verne’s science-fiction novel Voyage au centre de la terre from 1864, in which a German professor explores volcanic tubes that lead him to the earth’s core and to an 1860s understanding of our planet’s geological development. ‘Voyage’ usually denotes faraway travel by sea, and Auder uses ‘holiday’ images of beaches, sunsets and verandas, already stamped with that vintage VHS look, to illustrate a sound track entirely consisting of excerpts from cordless and wireless telephone conversations between unnamed, unknown people. We all know eavesdropping is supposed to be bad, but even if we put up some resistance at first we cannot help being sucked into this maelstrom (another word that Jules Verne liked) of religious and financial speculation, parental despair, gleeful psychobabble and frank erotic revelation. Auder is usually right about what captures our attention and what constitutes unadulterated human interest.

"floating words in an echo world" - Alexandre Estrela

Directors Lounge: Phlipp Hartmann | f.k.flumen
Von der Notwendigkeit dessen (Whereby according to necessity)
Thursday, 27 September 2012, 21h
Z-Bar, Bergstraße 2, 10115 Berlin-Mitte
With guest Jan Eichberg

Philipp Hartmann, whose short film comedies about Karlsruhe called "Der Anner" ("the other, there" in Southern Dialect) have been audience favorites on festivals, also works in very different styles with film, preferably with Super-8, and with much more subtle humor. Tracking the traces of Alexander Humboldt or his grandfather in Latin America, reflecting on the physical-poetical conditions of condensation trails in the sky, or recording the last remnants of an old lady who passed away, he always combines documentary with fictional approaches in such subversive, subtle ways that the viewer at the same time may be following the "movies of his own mind" or his own associations while watching these films. In addition, Philipp Hartmann will present Jan Eichberg as guest artist in the program, who creates short narratives in similar aesthetic ways. Both artists with be present and available for Q&A.

Tate Modern: Jeff Keen
18 September – 23 September 2012
Part of the series The Tanks: Art in Action
Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG

Jeff Keen (1923-2012) was a pioneer of experimental film whose rapid-fire animations, multiple screen projections and raucous performances redefined multimedia art in Britain.

This major installation for The Tanks at Tate Modern was conceived by Keen in response to the unique nature of the Tanks. Featuring a large, dioramic screen, the installation will demonstrate the spirit of Keen’s expanded cinema events, his early experiments in drawing, painting and animation, his fascination with surrealism and popular culture, and his radical development of multiple screen projection, cut-up soundtracks and unruly live action.

A very special live performance in the Tanks on Friday 21 September at 20.00 will feature projections and live music and actions performed by Keen’s daughter Stella Starr and a range of Keen’s collaborators, including Alan Baker, Chris Blackburn, Rob Gawthrop, Mike Movie and Jason Williams as ‘Silverhead’.