A joint show of two works by video artists Chris Marker and Michael Robinson, which will be presented in a short lecture by Yevgeny Gusyatinsky, curator of the Garage Screen program and selector of the Rotterdam Film Festival.
Chris Marker. Ouvroir the Movie, 2009
Video, 29’ 38”
This is a video introduction to the collection of a virtual museum created by the artist Chris Marker within the online game simulation Second Life at coordinates 187, 61, 39 in the archipelago. Players can wander on their own through the museum, dispatching their avatars to a designated “address.” In the film, a ginger cat resembling Garfield (the title character of a newspaper strip cartoon and the 2004 American comedy) sets out on the tour. He visits three floors of a strange exhibition located in the intricate architecture of the place, where arched galleries and secret nooks contain photographs, posters, and video installations.
The museum's exhibits generally refer to real artifacts. Some objects are candidly ironic, while others delve into reflections on the processes in art and culture accompanying the development of new media. These ruminations are especially evident on the lower level of the museum in a version of Marker’s installation Zapping Zone, which consists of postmodern collages based on well-known works.
Michael Robinson. Onward Lossless Follows, 2017
Video, 17’
The film is a surreal video sequence, consisting of voice-overs, dialogues (spoken by the characters or in captions), music, and visual effects such as double exposure and various bursts of static and light. Frame after frame, out of apparent nonsense emerges a strange, password-protected love story that unfolds against the background of general anxiety over dwindling water resources and searches for a path to salvation. Robinson creates a special, non-linear, sensual narrative, using all the expressive resources available to the cinema in unusual combinations and equating storyline with emotional impact. As for the enigmatic title, the author himself proposes two interpretations based on two possible nuances of the word “follow:” one in the sense of “happen in the future,” and the other as used in a social media context. Both cases have to do with overcoming a not especially pleasant present in favor of a future that evokes more positive expectations.
