Looking back over a history of one hundred years, experimental cinema has rigorously challenged cinematic conventions. To reach beyond telling stories, artists and filmmakers examined the material conditions of their medium, such as light, motion, celluloid and, with the advent of television and video, electronic signals. This relationship with the technical device—whether a camera or a computer—revolutionized the creative process and opened ever new possibilities for critically reflecting the world we live in.
With Zin Ex. From Abstraction to Algorithm, Tabakalera is starting a series of exhibitions timed to coincide with the San Sebastián International Film Festival. The first edition of the series presents an international selection of early avant- garde films, computer and video artworks from the 1960s and 1970s, contemporary films and installations, and other artistic media. Archival objects not only shed light on historical production tools and dissemination, but also on the mutual exchange between art, science and industry, such as took place for example at the Computing Centre at the Univerisity of Madrid (CCUM).
Optical phenomena, geometric patterns, moving images generated by sound, concrete poetry, machine rhythms, depictions of what remains unrepresented: Zin Ex. From Abstraction to Algorithm offers a wide spectrum of audiovisual experiences that defy accepted ways of seeing and our notions of what exists. Emphasizing the social situatedness of artistic practice, the exhibition also explores the shifting objectification of the human body and the political, economic and cultural implications of a global society increasingly shaped by digital technology.
Curated by Florian Wüst.
Participants: Javier Aguirre, José Luis Alexanco, Baloji, Wojciech Bruszewski, Henri Chopin, Guillermo Cifuentes, Salvador Dalí & Philippe Halsman, Forough Farrokhzad, Florian Fischer & Johannes Krell, W+B Hein, Narcisa Hirsch, Takahiko Iimura, Robert Janker, Kenneth C. Knowlton, Robert Luxemburg, Jesse McLean, László Moholy-Nagy, Joana Moll, Vera Molnár, Gunvor Nelson & Dorothy Wiley, A. Michael Noll, Stefan Panhans & Andrea Winkler, Letícia Parente, reMI, Lis Rhodes, Walter Ruttmann & Lore Leudesdorff, Lillian Schwartz, Eusebio Sempere, Soledad Sevilla, José Antonio Sistiaga, Elfriede Stegemeyer, Steina, José Val del Omar, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Stan VanDerBeek and Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt.
*PLEASE NOTE: It is recommendable to bring your own headphones to be able to listen to some of the artworks in the exhibition.
The exhibition presents an international selection of early avant-garde cinema, computer and video art from the 1960s and...