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Recent films of New York based artist Anton Ginzburg, known for his investigations into historical narratives and poetic studies of place, representation and post-Soviet identity. Including the 35-minute Turo (2016) and a programme of short films: Constructivist Drift (2016), Displacements (2015), Pan (2014), and Cut (2014). Followed by a Q&A with curator Will Strong.
Curated by Katya Chitova.
Turo, 2016
35 minutes, sound, digital video
Turo (“Tower” in Esperanto) is a film exploring post-Soviet geography and Constructivist architecture. It is made up four chapters and an introduction-index. Each chapter is exploring a different Constructivist building as a stage for past utopias. Modernity could be interpreted as an updated Tower of Babel project where the universal tongue would have been imposed over the rest of the world. It still resonates deeply with contemporary culture, but today it exists as an archive of ruins, the record of fragmentation.
Constructivist Drift, 2016
5 minutes, sound, digital video
Constructivist Drift is based on the writings of Ivan Chtcheglov Formularly for a New Urbanism, 1953, a poetic manifesto published by Situationist International as a response to the advancement of Modernism, and its confrontation with the human dimension of the city.
Displacements, 2015
5 minutes, digital video (originally 16mm film), no sound
Displacements is an homage to American artists Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt and their seminal film Swamp, which viscerally confronts issues of perception and process.
Pan, 2014
6 minutes, digital video (originally 16mm film)
Cut, 2014
7 minutes, HD video
Films Pan (2014) and Cut (2014) explore the genealogy and interactions of reproduction technologies from 16mm film to video formats. They examine variations of the mechanical gaze and its disembodiment in relation to the architectural representation and historical context. The hybrid aura offers an interplay and reconsideration of temporal and spatial relationships.
Anton Ginzburg, (b.1974 Saint Petersburg, Russia) is a New York–based artist and filmmaker who received a classical arts education in the USSR before immigrating to the United States in 1990. He earned a BFA from The New School for Social Research in 1997 and MFA degree from Bard College, Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. His art has been shown at the fifty-fourth Venice Biennale, Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, NYFF/Projections, IFFR, MIEFF, Rencontres Internationales, SAAG in Canada, and the first and second Moscow Biennales. His website is antonginzburg.com
Programme Manager Will Strong is responsible for Calvert 22 Foundation’s seasons including this year’s Revisiting Revolution and 2016’s New East Photo Prize. He has also developed a number of educational initiatives in partnership with Foreign and Commonwealth Office across the New East. He is a founder and board member of The NewBridge Project in Newcastle and has previously lead cultural projects at British Council in Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe.
