PRESS INFORMATION BASEL I MAY 9 I 2019 Film Art Basel’s week-long program of films by and about artists is curated by Maxa Zoller and Marian Masone. Zoller and Masone plan a diverse and challenging program of works that reflects on the complex role of media in today’s global world. For ticket reservation, please contact [email protected]. For further screening information, please visit artbasel.com/basel/film. DETAILED FILM PROGRAM Monday, June 10, 2019, 9pm Opening Film Cao Fei, 'Prison Architect', 2018, 59', Vitamin Creative Space In 'Prison Architect', Cao Fei subtly deconstructs and brings together parallel realities, in order to call into question received societal notions of the relationship between freedom and the self. Two protagonists – a Chinese political prisoner in British colonial-era Hong Kong, and a modern-day architect struggling with her commission to design a new prison – gradually draw closer, creating a dialogue across space and time. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Hu Fang and Maxa Zoller. Tuesday, June 11, 2019, 7pm Paul Grivas, 'Film Catastrophe', 2018, 55' In 2010, 'Film Socialisme' by Godard explores the shipwreck of political ideals in Europe. In 2012, the Costa Concordia, which had served as an allegoric platform to Godard, sinks before the cameras of passengers and the entire world. In 2018, 'Film Catastrophe' by Paul Grivas, looks at images of the disaster to revisit the film factory. The screening, in collaboration with Centre National des Arts Plastiques, will be followed by a Q&A with Paul Grivas and Marian Masone. Tuesday, June 11, 2019, 9pm Rashid Johnson, 'Native Son', 2019, 110', Hauser & Wirth Based on the seminal novel by Richard Wright, 'Native Son' tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a young African American living in Chicago who is given an opportunity to work as a chauffeur for the affluent businessman Will Dalton. As Bigger enters this seductive new world of money and power – including a precarious relationship with Dalton’s beautiful, captivating daughter Mary – he will face unforeseen choices and perilous circumstances that will alter the course of his life forever. Wednesday, June 12, 2019, 9pm Short Film Program 'Collective Mythologies' When Harald Szeemann coined the term 'individual mythologies' in the 1960s, it was mainly in reference to the male-dominated conceptual art of the time. The 'Collective Mythologies' short film program focuses on how a handful of contemporary female artists envision mythologies: as a collective artistic ritual grounded in group dynamics, that transmits the knowledge of previous generations through the body. Carolina Caycedo, Apariciones/Apparitions, 2018, 9'10'', Commonwealth and Council Christine Rebet, Thunderbird, 2018, 5', Bureau Cauleen Smith, Sojourner, 2018, 20'02'', Kate Werble Gallery, Corbett vs. Dempsey Rebecca Horn, Kopf-Extension, 1973, 3'25''; Einhorn, 1973, 3'11''; Kakadu-Maske, 1973, 2' Sean Kelly Thursday, June 13, 2019, 7pm Fiona Tan, 'Ascent', 2016, 80', Peter Freeman, Inc., Frith Street Gallery The photo-film has a long tradition within artistic practice. By animating single images using sound and narration, it is possible to create meditative and dreamlike cinematic experiences. Fiona Tan uses this form of storytelling in 'Ascent', a homage to the Japanese Mount Fuji. The film is no less colossal than the mountain, as it is composed of 4000 individual photographs taken over 150 years. With this monumental series of images, Tan evokes the culture of memory of one of the world’s most mystical destinations. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Fiona Tan and Maxa Zoller. Thursday, June 13, 2019, 9pm Prune Nourry, 'Serendipity', 2019, 74', Templon The French-born, New York–based artist has spent the majority of her artistic career creating work that deals with women’s bodies and female fertility. A recent breast cancer diagnosis led Nourry to create 'Serendipity' that began as a book project. It captures the subsequent evolution of her body, her work, her soul, and her mind. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Prune Nourry and Marian Masone. Friday, June 14, 2019, 7pm Short Film Program 'Destroy, he said' This short film program reflects the violence of our times on a playful, artistic level. In the films shown here, males encounter a silent adversary: sculpture. And the confrontation is (nearly) always fatal. Eva Rothschild, Boys and Sculpture, 2012, 25', Modern Art, 303 Gallery, kaufmann repetto, The Modern Institute, Galerie Eva Presenhuber François Curlet, Air Graham, 2005-18, 11', Air de Paris Hank Willis Thomas and Kambui Olujimi, Winter in America, 2005, 5', Jack Shainman Gallery Michael Rakowitz, The Ballad of Special Ops Cody and other stories, 14'42'', 2017, Barbara Wien The screening will be followed by a talk with Kambui Olujimi and Maxa Zoller Friday June 14, 2019, 9pm Double Feature Marxism Reloaded In times of political crisis like the current moment, we look for alternative social systems, which inevitably leads us back to the great counter-proposal to capitalism: communism. This double program examines the theme of Marxism from two very different perspectives. Phil Collins pays tribute to Friedrich Engels, co-author of the Communist Manifesto, in the context of Brexit and the contemporary British working class, and 100 years after the Russian Revolution. Sven Johne, on the other hand, takes up a continental European position and proposes a completely new political future. Sven Johne, Lieber Wladimir Putin / Dear Vladimir Putin, 2017, 17'39'', Klemm's Phil Collins, Ceremony, 2017, 67', Tanya Bonakdar Gallery The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Sven Johne and Maxa Zoller. Saturday, June 15, 2019, 8pm Jeffrey Perkins, 'George, The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus', 123', 2018 'George - The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus' is a documentary portrait of Lithuanian American artist, graphic designer, architect and impresario George Maciunas, who in 1961 established the avant-garde art movement Fluxus, an international association of artists working in varied disciplines. While Maciunas’s life events unfold, the film also engages debates not at all unfamiliar by artists working today; how do art and artists define relationships to political ideologies, capital exchange, communication technologies, globalism, collectivity and community? And how do these relationships function in a constant state of 'flux'? The discussion includes interviews with many notable artists connected to the Fluxus genesis, including Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Jonas Mekas and many others. NOTES TO EDITORS Admission Film tickets are CHF 17. Holders of Art Basel VIP cards, Art Basel tickets and exhibitor passes can pick up a free ticket at the Stadtkino Basel box office. The Stadtkino Basel box office opens 30 minutes prior to the screenings. As seating is limited, please email [email protected] for advance ticket reservation or visit the Film information desk at Art Basel, entrance area of Hall 2. Stadtkino Basel The Film program will be screened at Stadtkino Basel from Monday, June 10 to Saturday, June 15, 2019. Tram number 1 (direction SBB) or 2 (direction Binningen) from Messeplatz to Bankverein. From Bankverein it is a three-minute walk to Stadtkino, Klostergasse 5, 4051 Basel. About Maxa Zoller 2019 marks the fifth and final year Dr. Maxa Zoller curates the Film sector for Art Basel in Basel. Zoller was appointed Artistic Director of the Dortmund / Cologne International Women's Film Festival in 2018. She previously taught experimental film history and theory at the American University in Cairo, Goldsmiths College and Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. She has curated various experimental film screenings at Tate Modern, South London Gallery, no.w.here, the Munich Filmmuseum and the Centre of Contemporary Art in Geneva. A former lecturer at Goldsmiths College and Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Zoller developed a keen interest in alternative pedagogical tools; she created the workshop series 'The Cinematic Body' for the artist-run space no.w.here in London, where she also led the first edition of the summer school in 2012. In her writings for MIT, IB Tauris, JRP-Ringier and Hatje Verlag she covered topics ranging from post- socialist identity discourse and feminism to her academic expertise – the history of Western avant-garde and experimental film. Her current research interests regard the relationship between textile theory and contemporary art. About Marian Masone Marian Masone is a film curator based in New York. For over 25 years Masone was the Associate Director of Programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, one of America’s preeminent film organizations where she sat on the selection committees for 'New Directors/New Films', produced with the Museum of Modern Art in New York and 'The New York Film Festival'. Among her consulting projects, she works with German Film Services to select and present a yearly program of German films in New York City and is a consulting producer for Jump Cut Creative in New York. Masone is on the film panel of the Princess Grace Foundation, awarding fellowships to young artists, and is a member of Women in Film’s preservation fund. She has been a guest lecturer and curator for leading institutions such as Parsons School of Design in New York and Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. About Art Basel Founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world's premier art shows for Modern and contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. Art Basel’s engagement has expanded beyond art fairs through a number of new initiatives such as Art Basel Cities, working with partner cities on bespoke cultural programs.