28th may 2008
klaus w. eisenlohr with steven ball
showing: slow space
Light Reading’s 2008 series continues with a conversation between artists Klaus W. Eisenlohr and Steven Ball. Eisenlohr’s film Slow Space (2004) will be screened during the event.
Klaus W. Eisenlohr is an artist, photographer and filmmaker living in Berlin. He is currently curator of “Urban Research”, an ongoing film and video project concerned with urban development and public space, at Director’s Lounge, Berlin. Eisenlohr’s recent work can be characterised as “camera-guided” rigorous research into exploring the body within the spaces it inhabits, and aiming to go beyond mere representation of public spaces through film, but to encourage a perception of space that goes beyond the camera’s frame.
Slow Space (2004) is a film journey through buildings of glass architecture in Chicago. Street scenes and interviews complement this essay on public and private spaces.
Slow Space takes the viewer on a visual trip through the city of Chicago without showing streets or plazas as they are seen in travel guides. Instead, the journey goes through places roofed and lit by glass architecture: Garfield Park Conservatory, Juvenile Court, Merchandise Mart, Cumberland Station, Nature Museum, Westside Future, César Chavez Elementary School, Tower Condominium, Jackson Academy, Lincoln Park Conservatory, a private living room, Gran Hyatt Regency and some other places. Scenes set in open urban space and interviews filmed in private homes complement this passage through public and private places. The project investigates the relationship between the body and the urban architectural environment over a period of three years. Searching the anomalies in “normal”, the filmmaker traces a ‘Desire for Modernity’ in the city’s architecture being shaped by pre- and post- modern forces. In addition, the film discusses the topic of public space in American cities through interviews with the Chicago artists and filmmakers Deborah Stratman, Chris Harris, Gretchen Till, Ken Fandell, Thomas Comerford and Eduardo Pradilla.
Eisenlohr’s work has been shown internationally, with recent solo and group exhibitions at the Alten Wiehre Banhof, Freiburg, Germany, 2007, Inner Spaces Gallery, Poznan, Poland, 2007 and at the Helsinki International Artist-in-residence project room, Helsinki, Finland, 2006.
Steven Ball is a time based media artist. His recent work has focused predominantly on working with digital video producing a series of works that are, among other things, particularly concerned with digital material processes and spatial representation. He is currently Research Fellow at the British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London.
Light Reading is an ongoing series of critical dialogues that engage artists, writers and curators in conversation around a selected artist’s body of work.
slow space: film info
www.steven-ball.net
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