REPRODUCTIBILITAT 2.0. COL·LECCIÓ MACBA

 13th September to 15th November, 2015.  Opening, 12th September at 12.30 pm.  Curator: Nekane Aramburu.

16 works of the artists , James Agee, Eugènia Balcells, Samuel Beckett, , Guy Debord, , Dan Graham, Grup de Treball, Gary Hill, , Mike Kelley, Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, Gordon Matta-Clark, Paul McCarthy, Matt Mullican, , .

With the following activities:

 Master class with Isaki Lacuesta "Growing cinema". 1st October, 2015 from 5.00 to 8.00 pm  "An approach to video ", a course with Nekane Aramburu. 20th and 21st October from 5.30 to 8.00 pm.

In collaboration with:

Acknowledgement:

-The Macba staff: Antònia Maria Perelló, Ainhoa González, Patricia Sorroche, Anna Garcia, Tonina Cerdà, Éric Jiménez.

SYNOPSIS AND TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Vito Acconci (Nueva York, EEUU, 1941) The Red Tapes 1976 Length: 143’ 35’’ Sound Format: Monocanal video, b/w MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation Registration Number: 2213

SYNOPSIS Originally conceived for an installation, this is a three-part work that relates matters of identity, language and the representation of the individual regarding the cultural and social context of the in the 'seventies. Throughout the tapes of which the project is comprised, an extraordinary chronicle develops, performatively, on the ego and the mythical constructions of culture and history, as though it were an essay on the country.

Eugènia Balcells

For further information an press material please contact: [email protected] Tel. +34 971 908 201 www.esbaluard.org

(Barcelona, 1943) The End 1977 Length: 9’ 56’’ Sound Format: 16 mm film transferred to Monocanal video, colour MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation Registration Number: 2708

SYNOPSIS An appropriation of the frames from the ends of different films combined with a collage of musical themes from commercial movies; these sequences, edited together, are intended to reveal the ideological reductionism and influence of the communications media, the culture of the masses and gender stereotypes.

Samuel Beckett (Dublin, 1906-Paris, 1989) Not I 1972 (1977) Length: 11’ 52’’ Sound Format: Monocanal video, b/w MACBA Collection. MACBA Committee Registration Number: 4397

SYNOPSIS Written at the beginning of the '70s, in this TV version of the dramatic monologue all we see is the mouth of an actress, Billie Whitelaw. Directed by Bill Morton, the actress performs the piece written by one of the most important representatives of literary experimentalism. The purity of the language, both visual and verbal, and the construction of the narrative using the evanescence of the textual material, force the spectator to participate in the absurd and activate the narration with his or her imagination.

Chris Burden (Boston, EEUU, 1946-Topanga Canyon, EEUU, 2015) The TV commercials 1973-1977 1973-1977 Length: 3’ 46’’ Sound Format: Monocanal video, colour MACBA Collection. MACBA Committee Registration Number: 4060

SYNOPSIS Based on the utilisation of the customary TV codes, this work follows the patterns of commercials but in them, the artist positions himself at the centre of the action. He clones his strategies for manipulation and language using humour, giving rise to four legendary commercials: Through the Night Softly, 1973; Poem for LA, 1975; Chris Burden Promo, 1976; Full Financial Disclosure, 1977.

Guy Debord

For further information an press material please contact: [email protected] Tel. +34 971 908 201 www.esbaluard.org

(Paris, 1931­Bellevue-la montagne, France, 1994) Hurlements en faveur de Sade 1952 Length : 64’ Sound Format: Monocanal video, b/w MACBA Collection. MACBA Committee Registration Number: 2982

SYNOPSIS Going beyond experimental film, this is an anti-film proposal with no images and barely any sound in which different voices curse, recite or fall silent, with a white or black screen; for the last 24 minutes the screen is black and there is total silence. This is an iconoclastic challenge typical of the radical lack of faith in image of the Situationists Debord was a founder of. Art as an ideology removed from the sense of commercial production.

VALIE EXPORT (Linz, Austria, 1940) Cutting 1967-1968 Length: 1’ 41’’ Sound Format: Monocanal video, b/w MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation Registration Number: 2643

SYNOPSIS The video is based on the recording of the performance held by the artist at the Underground Explosion in Munich. This succession of linked actions alludes to the construction of audiovisual narration through the process of cutting or mounting the fragmented image. To achieve this, it takes the metaphor of the façade of a house projected on paper and the naked body of a man as surfaces for action, and practises appropriation, to ultimately make them explicit.

Dan Graham (Urbana, EEUU, 1943) Past/future split attention 1972 Length: 17’ Sound Format: Monocanal video, b/w MACBA Collection. MACBA Committee Registration Number: 2874

SYNOPSIS Documentary video of the performance held at London's Lisson Gallery in which we see two people, microphone in hand, establishing a subjective, complex relationship of cacophony and interconnected, uninterrupted choreographies. The related times and movements come from the prediction of the performers' behaviour, which overlap past and present, questioning our perception of time. Grup de Treball (Banyoles, Spain, 1972-Venice, Italy, 1976)

For further information an press material please contact: [email protected] Tel. +34 971 908 201 www.esbaluard.org

Formed by: Francesc Abad, Jordi Benito, Jaume Carbó, Maria Costa, Alícia Fingerhut, Xavier Franquesa, Carles Hac Mor, Imma Julián, Antoni Mercader, Antoni Munné, Antoni Muntadas, Josep Parera, Santi Pau, Pere Portabella, Àngels Ribé, Manuel Rovira, Enric Sales, Carles Santos, Dorothée Selz and Francesc Torres. Film col·lectiu 1974 Length: 42’ No Sound Format: 16 mm film transferred to video, b/w MACBA Collection. MACBA Committee. Donation of Grup de Treball Registration Number: 1466

SYNOPSIS Constructed using 16 mm reels containing performative recordings of some of the members of this artistic group which emerged as a result of a common interest in the social and political function of art, based on conceptual art. The digital version of Film col·lectiu, conceived in an epistolary manner, includes the following actions: Francesc Abad (8.15 min.), Antoni Mercader (9.34 min.), Carles Santos (15.31 min.), Dorothée Selz (5.18 min.) interspersed with images of political demonstrations by the Grup de Producció (2.45 min.).

Gary Hill (Santa Monica, , EEUU, 1951) Commentary 1980 Length: 50’’ Sound Format: Monocanal video, colour MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation. Deposit Screen Projects Registration Number: 4366

SYNOPSIS Defined humorously by Gary Hill as a manifesto against television, the artist presents himself as author, actor and spectator. A concise piece on the nature of television which uses the power of language and cognitive formation of the images to question that which is real as opposed to the mass media.

Joan Jonas (New York, EEUU, 1936) Wind 1968 Length: 5’ 40’’ No Sound Format: 16 mm film transferred to video, b/w MACBA Collection. MACBA Committee Registration Number: 2953

SYNOPSIS Shot on Long Island beach (New York) in the midst of winter, with a strong wind and snow, the action takes place in a desolate landscape, as a symbolic space. The unconnected surrealist character movements are carried out by different people who enter and leave the frame, performing group or individual choreographies with a ritualistic, cyclical component.

For further information an press material please contact: [email protected] Tel. +34 971 908 201 www.esbaluard.org

Helen Levitt; James Agee; Janice Loeb Levitt (New York, EEUU, 1913–2009), Agee (1909, Knoxville, Tennessee, EEUU-New York, EEUU, 1955) Loeb (New York, EEUU, 1913-Salt Lake City, EEUU, 2005) In the street 1945-1946 (1952) Length: 15’ No Sound Format: 16 mm film transferred to video, b/w Co-authors: James Agee and Janice Loeb Piano: Arthur Kleiner MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation. Donation Grupo Planeta Registration Number: 2777

SYNOPSIS Helen Levitt made this short film with writer James Agee and painter Janice Loeb. The documentary is a precursor of American independent films, shot with small 16 mm cameras to show the street life of the working class residents of New York's Spanish Harlem who were still affected by the crash of '29. The fact that there is no narration or text enables spectators to concentrate on the aesthetics and language of urban life, represented by small details or expressions.

Gordon Matta-Clark (New York, EEUU, 1943-1978) City slivers 1976 Length: 14’ 12’’ No Sound Format: Super 8 mm film transferred to video, colour MACBA Collection. MACBA Committee Registration Number: 3126

SYNOPSIS Created for projection on the outer façade of the Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan, New York, this work is a formal investigation which uses vertical strips and juxtapositions of New York City seen through an anamorphic lens that sucks and alters façades, traffic and people with different types of movements. The medium becomes a work for changing social perception.

Paul McCarthy & Mike Kelley (Salt Lake City, EEUU, 1945 / Detroit, EEUU, 1954-, EEUU, 2012) Fresh Acconci 1995 Length: 45’ Sound Monocanal video, colour MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation Registration Number: 2771

Based on the following 5 Vito Acconci’s works: Claim Excerpts (1971), Contacts (1971), Focal Points (1971), Pryings (1971), Theme Song (1973). Cast: Nancy Paradis, Andre Paradis, Roosevelt Flenourg, Heather Kennedy.

For further information an press material please contact: [email protected] Tel. +34 971 908 201 www.esbaluard.org

Directors: Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley. Production: Steve Cioffi, Scott Hopper. Director of Photography: Ken Marcus. Ligthing assistant: Leonard Kuperstein, Jeffrey Dean Zawitkoski. Steadycam operator: Jerry Hil. Make-up and hair stylist: Lee Garland. Technical assistant: Norman Yonemoto. Edition studio: Pacific Ocean Post. Executive producer: Tom Patchett.

SYNOPSIS A provocative, voyeuristic review of the 5 classic performances by Vito Acconci in the 'seventies transferred to a summer Hollywood mansion with nude actors: Claim Excerpts (1971), with a paranoid Acconci located blindfolded in the basement of the house, armed with a metal tube; Contacts (1971), which uses the body as a vehicle for the transmission of heat and communication; Focal Points (1971), where Acconci, his back to the camera and nude, tries to guess the object and direction of the camera's gaze; Pryings (1971), in which Acconci tries to force a woman to open her eyes; and the emblematic Theme Song (1973), in which a face-to-face close-up of Acconci intimidates the spectator.

Matt Mullican (Santa Monica, California, EEUU, 1951) Matt Mullican under Hypnosis 1996 Length: 167’ 56’’ Sound Format: 10 monocanal videos, colour and paperboard box MACBA Collection. MACBA Committee Registration Number: 3208

SYNOPSIS This entire series of videos shows how this creator has used hypnosis, since 1976, either individually or with actors, as a tool to reach the more radical part of a subject and thus explore the sense of the image in itself, coming closer to the core of the idea. The camera and the spectators witness how the subconscious provokes artistic actions amongst individuals and the collective.

Bruce Nauman (Fort wayne, EEUU, 1941) Art Make-Up 1967-1968 Length: 40’ Sound Format: 16 mm film transferred to video, colour MACBA Collection. MACBA Foundation Registration Number: 2218

SYNOPSIS In four different recordings initially designed to be projected separately, Bruce Naumann applied different coloured make-up to himself – white, pink, green or black – first on his face, and then on his arms and the rest of his body. Facing the camera, looking at a different screen, the artist covers himself but also self-constructs

For further information an press material please contact: [email protected] Tel. +34 971 908 201 www.esbaluard.org

himself as a continuous loop based on a moving half-body portrait.

Tony Oursler (New York, EEUU, 1957) The Life of Phillis 1979 Length: 55’ 23’’ Sound Format: Monocanal video, b/w MACBA Collection. MACBA Committee Registration Number: 2879

SYNOPSIS The artist uses the camera to take different shots, movements and approximations to a precarious puppet theatre of characters created using simple, encountered objects, like the remains of pop culture. In this way, he constructs an epic psycho- sexual narrative of political and social corruption based on irony and the grotesque. The association of ideas and the subconscious in a psuedo-post-punk nihilistic narrative.

For further information an press material please contact: [email protected] Tel. +34 971 908 201 www.esbaluard.org