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Packaged Goods is screening at Videolab Oporto

February 9 2008
Gato Vadio
Rua do Rosário, 281
Oporto, Portugal

“You Talkin’ To Me?” program:

“Loud and Clear” by Dietmar Krumrey | 3’ (excerpt) | USA
Dressed in a shirt, tie, and expensive shoes, I spin in circles while shouting “Attention!” into a large black megaphone while a clock ticks off the seconds in the background. It is a repetitive action that at once appears totally absurd, but if seen as a metaphor of communication and identity in all its dizzying ceaselessness, the work approaches something much more ordinary, realistic, and down-to-earth, while remaining an absurdity.
DIETMAR KRUMREY (USA)
www.perpetualartmachine.com/index.php?

“The State of Things” by Amelia Winger-Bearskin | 9’ | USA
Performance for Video: State of Things. Appropriated from old comedy acts and vaudeville numbers, who transform the shit fuck/ fucking shit into a comedy gag. This piece uses a performer who starts out as an adult who speaks these words provocatively and then after the words have shed their meaning they become only sounds, at last the performer sounds much like an infant attempting to speak, and the gag becomes her undoing as she attempts to perform the identity of the adult female.
AMELIA WINGER-BEARSKIN (USA)
www.studioamelia.com

“Entitled As” by Arzu Ozkal Telhan | 3′31 | Turkey/USA
“The body is a powerful symbolic form, a surface on which the central rules, hierarchies, and even metaphysical commitments of culture are inscribed…” - Foucault
ARZU OZKAL TELHAN (Turkey)
http://contrary.info

“Gay?” by Jean Gabriel Périot | 2′ | France
“I’m gay, I’m a fag, I’m proud and I really love sex.”
JEAN GABRIEL PÉRRIOT (France)
http://jgperiot.free.fr

“Packaged Goods” by Leah Meyerhoff | 1′ | USA
In an attempt to preserve the “ideal beauty” a young woman begins to choke inside her own packaging.
LEAH MEYERHOFF (USA)
www.leahmeyerhoff.com

“Der Bewohner” by o habitante | 3′06’’ | Portugal
o habitante (Portugal)
http://o-habitante.blogspot.com

“Ornamental” by Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli | 1’50’’ | USA
This work captures a point where punk rock culture encounters and incorporates American traditions of Christmas holiday culture.
ANNA CHIARETTA LAVATELLI (USA)
www.annachiaretta.com

“Baby Marleena” by Erica Eyres | 4′30 | Scotland
Baby Marleena is what is commonly known as a mermaid, and for this reason, has spent her whole life in the bathtub. Her mother, Tamarra, wants to show the world what a day in their lives is like.
ERICA EYRES (Canada)
www.ericaeyres.com

“Falling Down” by Jan Hakon Erichsen | 53” | Norway
An ordinary set of window blinds have been transformed into a homemade guillotine and every time a person walks by the window the shades are dropped, giving the visual impression of a random execution.
JAN HAKON ERICHSEN (Norway)
www.janhakon.com

“Mother look what they’ve done to me (a tribute to Amanda Lear)” by Risk Hazekamp | 5’20’’ | Netherlands
RISK HAZEKAMP (Netherlands)
www.riskhazekamp.nl

“Gender Bender Hallo” by Alison Williams | 5′17” | South Africa
What makes a woman a woman? The artist uses vocal performance to express her questions about gender and identity.
ALISON WILLIAMS (South Africa)
www.alisonwilliams.com

“Perfect” by Johanna Lecklin |1′ | Finland
A projection of princess Diana’s face on the artist’s face. Subtitles are telling how to fit in to the image of the princess.
JOHANNA LECKLIN (Finland)
www.re-title.com/artists/Johanna-Lecklin.asp

“O Burro” by Artur Varela | 4′ | Portugal
A video that belongs to a set of super8 films, produced in 1972/73 as part of the important exhibition “Alternativa Zero”, perhaps the most important avant-garde event for plastic and performative arts that took place in Portugal, in 1977. All the nowadays most important names of Portuguese arts participated in this event.
ARTUR VARELA (Portugal)
www.portugal1973.blogspot.com

“Ah Pook is Here” by Philip Hunt | 6′ | United Kingdom/Germany
A short animated film based on three texts by William’s Burrough’s. In the scattered remains of a burnt out cosmos, the last god of panic - ‘AH POOK’ - debates the trembling balance between life and death. Astride the rotting carcasses of Armageddon, Pook spews a bitter manifesto of enlightenment, and liberation.
PHILIP HUNT
www.studioaka.co.uk

“Fine, Thanks” by Ruggero Mantovani | 1′50” | Italy
The way I feel today.
RUGGERO MANTOVANI (Italy)
www.myspace.com/spicchio

“Front” by Johanna Reich | 1’56’’ | Germany
War in media: a young woman during her fight against the camera - against the observer.
JOHANNA REICH (Germany)
www.johannareich.com

“Skippy Bunny” by Corrine Bot | 5’40’’ | Netherlands
Experimental short movie. In a white, futuristic tunnel a rhythmic mechanical sound becomes louder and louder. Slowly but surely it becomes clear what causes this sound…
CORRINE BOT (Netherlands)
www.corrinebot.com

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O Projecto Videolab irá dar início a um ciclo de apresentações multimédia na Livraria-Café “Gato Vadio”, no Porto, no dia 9 de Fevereiro, que se estenderá pelo ano de 2008.

Na preparação deste evento, foram tidos em conta o espaço e o seu ambiente específico, seguindo a linha orientadora que caracteriza as iniciativas Videolab desde a sua criação em 2004:

O que caracteriza a linguagem do vídeo?
Qual o espaço ideal para a sua apresentação?
Há um espaço ideal?

Desta forma, procurou-se criar uma sessão com trabalhos que interpelassem directamente o visitante/espectador. O título atribuído à sessão “You talkin’ to me?” é uma referência óbvia à famosa frase de Robert de Niro no filme Taxi Driver, pronunciada por diversas vezes enquanto se olha ao espelho.
Pretendeu-se fugir à mera apresentação de vídeos com função decorativa, para onde o espectador pode ou não olhar, ou ao recurso a vídeos mais narrativos, em que o espectador tenha de estar necessariamente atento. Sendo assim, os filmes que irão ser apresentados não necessitam da atenção do espectador do início ao fim, mas vão estar constantemente a interpelá-lo, seja pelo conteúdo transmitido por alguém que “te olha nos olhos”, seja pelo som ou pela forma como é apresentado.

Os trabalhos serão apresentados em loop dando oportunidade de poderem ser vistos a qualquer momento no dia 9 de Fevereiro.