A Long Time Between Suns (Part 2) was the second installment of a two-part solo show by
The Otolith Group, which was organised in collaboration with
Gasworks. Having shown the films
Otolith I and
II at Gasworks in March 2009, the second instalment was the premiere of
Otolith III, and also the first exhibition at The Showroom’s new space in the Church Street Neighbourhood, London NW8.
Informed by Satyajit Ray’s unmade film
The Alien (1967) and Pier Paolo Pasolini's
Appunti per un Film sull'India (1968),
Otolith III was a single screen projection that replayed Ray's unrealised science fiction film as a series of competing past potential futures. As with
Part 1 at Gasworks, it was situated in a new installation conceived and designed by
Will Holder.
Otolith III was accompanied by
Otolith Timeline (video, colour, 30 minutes, 2003) which situates The Otolith Trilogy in a speculative history of the 20th and 21st Century.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of events, including a seminar with The Otolith Group and discussions with filmmaker
Eyal Sivan and
Bidoun magazine.
A new Otolith Group monograph designed by
Will Holder has been edited as an archival assemblage that links the two stages of the exhibition. The monograph contains an extensive conversation with the artists and a new text by
Jean Matthee. The Otolith Group monograph is published by Sternberg Press in collaboration with The Showroom and Gasworks, London, MACBA, Barcelona, and Fondazione Galleria Civica - Centro di Ricerca sulla Contemporaneità di Trento.
Events:
22 September, 7pm: In the Court of the Image: Discussion with Eyal Sivan.
Conversation between The Otolith Group and filmmaker Eyal Sivan on the question of the documentary image as it emerges within the conflictual space of aesthetic and legal judgement.
3 October, 3-6pm: Seminar with the Otolith Group
The fifth seminar in an ongoing series organised in collaboration with Afterall journal. The Otolith Group discusses key concepts that emerge from their work in conversation with Afterall editors Pablo Lafuente and Melissa Gronlund, and The Showroom’s Acting Director Kit Hammonds.
17 October, 4pm: The Otolith Group in conversation with artist and filmmaker Lamia Joreige.
25 October, 2.30 – 7.30pm: Launch of the film screening series Images Sometimes Tremble: Encounters with Durational Cinema with Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel (270 min, 2004) by Eyal Sivan and Michel Khleifi.
The first in a new series of durational film screenings initiated by The Otolith Group, which will take place at The Showroom over the coming year.
25 October 2009, 7.30-8.30pm: Launch of The Otolith Group's new publication, A Long Time Between Suns, designed by Will Holder
The Otolith Group was formed in 2002 by London-based artists Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar. Their works include the films
Otolith I (2003),
Otolith II (2007),
Nervus Rerum (2008), the thirteen monitor installation
Inner Time of Television (2007), the curation of the exhibition
The Ghosts of Songs: The Film Art of The Black Audio Collective, exhibited at FACT, Liverpool and Arnolfini, Bristol in 2007 and the co-curation of
Three Early Films: Harun Farocki at Cubitt (2009) and
Against What? Against Whom? (2009) in collaboration with Tate Modern and Raven Row (2009).
Otolith III is co-produced by The Showroom, Gasworks and Il Trifoglio Nero and is supported by a grant from Film London.
Will Holder is a designer and writer based in London. He recently curated
Talk Show at the ICA, and is editor of FR DAVID, published by de Appel, Amsterdam. He is currently editing and designing a biography of American composer Robert Ashley (with Alex Waterman), and rewriting William Morris’
News from Nowhere (An epoch of rest) into a guide for design education and practise set in 2135.
