Screenings

Performance on Film

Whitstable Museum & Art Gallery

Monday to Saturday 10:00 - 16:00, Sunday 13:00 - 16:00

A programme of artists' film and video. An eclectic selection of short works featuring

performances captured on film, the programme includes works by Bruce Naumann, Rebecca Horn, Gordon Matta-Clark, Roman Signer, Vito Acconci and Joan Jonas, together with contemporary works.

Sarah Turner Ecology

St Peters Church, Sydenham Street

Saturday 5 July 20:00
With Caroline Jay, Georgia Brown and James Fennell-Barker
97min col UK 2007 cert tbc
Jean Genet described the family as the most destructive cell. Sarah Turner's look at the unsettling side of family takes the themes of destruction and renewal as metaphors in her visually compelling episodic new feature Ecology.Located somewhere between meditation and dream,Ecology is a film in three parts that fuses an exploration of narrative with Turner's dedication to formal experimentation. Three characters, mother, daughter and son tell three different stories about the same violent incident recalled asinner monologues, while on holiday in Majorca. This is not the Spain of travel showsand holiday brochures, but anenvironmentally friendly writers’ retreat – a place full of rules and precise instructions about recycling all waste. We watch as eachcharacter awkwardly comes to terms with their newenvironment, and listen as they pick awayat thesores of personal memory. The characters’ internal struggle as they searchfor self knowledge is mapped against the harmony and fragility of nature. Deliveredwith passion and some humour, Ecology hints at the unasked question; “How can we begin to look after the planet if we can'tlook after ourselves?”

Shoton location in Majorca and Whitstable using 23 different camera formats, Ecology is a film of emotional complexity andhaunting beauty. Uniquely designed as a three part feature that can be viewed in any order,Ecology is conceived as a work for both the cinema and the gallery.

Sarah Turner is an artist who writes and makes films. Her work spans single screen gallery pieces (rooted in the formal preoccupations of the avant-garde from which she emerged) to feature length projects that explore new narrative forms and the cinematic potential of subjective storytelling. All of her films have toured nationally and internationally and several have been broadcast through artists’ showcases on Channel 4.

Ruth Beale and Karen Mirza The Voyage of Nonsuch

Sea Cadets' Hall, Middle Wall

Saturday 5 July 15:00

Ruth Beale and Karen Mirza present a programme of maritime films that weave a tale from industry and trade to leisure and heritage. Drawing on national, local and personal film archives, the programme brings together thinking on the document within contemporary art, with that of globalisation and the local; pragmatic and political collectivity. It questions the subjective nature of collecting, and draws on dialogue around collections as discursive centres as well as clusters of objects.

Influenced by development plans at Whitstable Harbour, the screening is the first stage of a project to be fully realised at the 2010 biennale, following the fate of the harbour as development plans unfold. The longer-term collaborative research project will explore the representation of the maritime in film, using cinema as a discursive agent to investigate the presentness of history.

Beale and Mirza’s individual practices question in different ways the relationship of the past to the present moment, of archiving, collecting, nostalgia and heritage. Their artistic and curatorial practices have given them considerable collective experience presenting public events and film screenings and the partnership is a result of an ongoing interest and enthusiasm in each others work.

Hope Fitzgerald 30 Books, Tony Novak Foster Taking Back

Harbour Books, Harbour Street

Thursday - Sunday each week

A competition for UCCA Canterbury students asked for 1 minute film works to be submitted. Taking Back and 30 Books were selected by a panel including filmmaker Neil Henderson and Sarah Martin, Turner Contemporary Curator. Hope Fitzgerald and Tony Foster are students on the MA Fine Art Course. Both works feature books, in two subtle and thought-provoking works.