Premiere screening: Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog, and discussion with Oleg Kulik and Alexey Artamonov

Date

Schedule

19:00–22:00

Place

Garage Auditorium

DESCRIPTION

Garage Screen and the Beat Film Festival present the Russian premiere of Heart of a Dog, a new film from composer, musician, and performance artist Laurie Anderson, one of the key figures in American experimental music of the second half of the 20^th century.

Laurie Anderson’s works resist any attempt at classification and defy genre conventions. Her work Homeland, staged in Moscow in 2008, was a combination of а music concert, poetry night, political manifesto, and audio-visual installation. Her film Heart of a Dog is an essay combining elements of an intimate diary, a philosophical meditation, nostalgic animation, a home video, and music, which is central to Anderson’s artistic practice.

With quotes from Wittgenstein, Kierkegaard, and The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the film mixes music with the artist’s personal memories and reflections on society and politics after 9/11. There are also moments of absolute silence and cacophony—a dog’s barking. Anderson’s memories of her late pet terrier Lolabelle act as a starting point for a conversation on love, life, and death, all interconnected in a Buddhist circle of regeneration.

The film also discusses Anderson’s thoughts on her late husband Lou Reed, who died in 2013. The film masterfully captures his spirit and the artistic freedom he was associated with.

Heart of a Dog was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 72^nd Venice Film Festival and Best Documentary at the 31^st Independent Spirit Awards. It was also shortlisted for an Academy Award. Artist and curator Oleg Kulik and Alexey Artamonov, a film critic and Seance editor, will introduce the film’s Russian premiere. The screening will be followed by a discussion with their participation.

Heart of a Dog
Director: Laurie Anderson
2015, USA, France. 75 min
© Beat Film Festival

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Laurie Anderson is an American musician, composer, performance artist, and filmmaker. She has been one of the most influential figures in experimental electronic music, experimental post-punk, art-rock, and art-pop since the 1970s. She has also invented several musical instruments, which she uses in her performances. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute and Aalto University, and was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982. In 2003, she was the first resident artist at NASA, which inspired her performance piece The End of The Moon. In 2012, she was named inaugural distinguished artist in residence at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer in Troy, New York. She has collaborated with many acclaimed composers, authors, and artists, including William S. Burroughs, Jean Dupuy, Nam June Paik, Peter Gabriel, Perry Hoberman, Jean-Michel Jarre, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Nona Hendryx, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Dave Stewart, Peter Gordon, Hector Zazou, and Lou Reed, whom she married in 2008.

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

Oleg Kulik is an artist renowned for his performances, installations, objects, photographic projects, and videos. He is also a curator and one of the leaders of Moscow Actionism. He became famous after his 1994 performance The Mad Dog, or Last Taboo Guarded by the Lonely Cerberus. The show later became part of his Zoophrenia project, which included a number of actions in Russia and abroad, and, in particular, the establishment of Animal Party in 1995. He was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation fellowship in 1990 and received the Berlin Senate scholarship in 1996. He is the recipient of an Innovation Award for best curatorial project (I Believe, 2007). He has taken part in international exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, the Freud Museum in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp, the Solomon R. Guggenheim museums in New York and Bilbao, and the Venice, Valencia, and São Paulo biennales.

Alexey Artamonov is a film critic and curator of cinema programs, and the author of many publications on music and cinema. He has written for Seance, Iskusstvo Kino, Afisha, Interview Russia, W-O-S, Look at Me, Colta.ru, Kinote, and Cinephantom, and currently works as an editor at Seance. Previously, he worked as an editor at Theory and Practice. He has curated film programs at the 35th and 37th Media Forums of the Moscow International Film Festival, and the Found Footage program at the 24th International Film Festival Message to Man. He has also run workshops at the Nachalo Film Festival in St. Petersburg, and worked as a press officer for the State Cinema Museum and Message to Man.