Week 2 Seminar and Screening

Friday 14 October’s seminar featured Matjaz Banic’s presentation and discussion of ‘The Order’, a 31 minute version of Mathew Barney’s film Cremaster 3.
The susequent screening presented two extracts from Soy Cuba (USSR/Cuba, 1964), a film by Mikhail Kalatozov.
If you haven’t yet seen all of the Cremaster Cycle (1-5) then keep an eye on the website for dates of future screenings around the world (the latest is in Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Oct 28-30, 2005), otherwise buy a copy of ‘The Order’ on DVD.
Even if your only exposure to Barney’s films is this particular work then I think you will have seen how an artist can use the medium of cinematography at a level of sophistication to equal anything found in conventional cinema. The scale and ambition of the entire cycle is such that the various films take place in locations as diverse as the Guggenheim museum (Cremaster 3), the Utah salt flats (Cremaster 2), the TT circuit of the Isle of Man (Cremaster 4), the Bronco Stadium in Boisie, Idaho (Cremaster 1) and the Opera House in Budapest (Cremaster 5), to mention only a few of the more memorable. Of course the locations alone don’t make the work, this is achieved through Barney’s ability to draw together the various elements of his practice as sculptor, performer, choreographer, filmmaker, sound designer and whatever else in order to realise the project. The result is one of the most innovative and engaging examples of artist filmmaking since the advent of cinema. If you want to learn more about the Cremaster Cycle just go to the website at www.cremaster.net