Commotion Artist's Film Programmes Series 1

Since January 2002 Arnolfini and Picture This have worked in partnership to present innovative exhibition programmes of artist's film and video to sizeable audiences within Arnolfini's auditorium. The Commotion series has established a reputation for bringing audiences together to view and discuss curatorially rigorous programmes of work by international contemporary artists. Each of the carefully researched projects explores a pertinent theoretical issue or creative genre through the presentation of a number of fine art films and talks by artists, curators or academics.

On The Road
Anna Lucas (UK), Sarah Miles (UK), Tracey Moffatt (AUS), Cordelia Swann (USA), Salla Tykkä (FIN)
These highly visual journeys of the mind and body take place in urban and rural landscapes. The emotionally charged settings become the trigger for personal memories or moments of contemplation. The film-makers take us to an Australian homestead, the Finnish hinterland, the Dorset coastline, the Manhattan skyline and a English sun-drenched lane to reveal short stories of isolation and discovery. The films employ powerful sound tracks and voiceovers rather than scripted dialogue to take us out on the road.
Speakers: Anna Lucas and Cordelia Swann.

Artist
George Barber (UK), Tracey Emin (UK), Kenny McLeod (UK), Tracey Moffatt (AUS), Bob &
Roberta Smith (UK), Michael Smith (USA), Annika Ström (SWE)
This programme takes its title from Tracey Moffat's fast-paced journey through Hollywood's depiction of the artist. Irony and self-deprecation unite this collection of films which move from documents of art works and artists lives to George Barber and Kenny McLeod's more abstract attacks on art making. Tracey Emin's career path from 1962-1995 is an emotional rollercoaster whilst Mike Smith, Bob & Roberta Smith and Annika Ström's works feature fabricated artistic personas, humiliating professional experiences, solutions for getting by in the art world and amateurish art works.
Speakers: Robin Marriner and George Barber.

Documents and Fictions
Eija-Liisa Ahtila (FIN), Stuart Croft (UK), Carol Morley (UK), John Smith (UK)
These films combine documentary realism and cinematic devices to relay everyday events to dramatic effect. Eija-Liisa Ahtila's film Consolation Service deals with a young couple's divorce process intercut with dream like sequences of drowning in ice cold water. Whilst in Dead Happy by Stuart Croft a trailer and a documentary interview are combined with a claustrophobic sound track to depict the dramatic decline of the male protagonist. Based on a collection of newspaper cuttings, Carol Morley's Everyday Something features characters such as a man obsessed with Claudia Schiffer and a washing machine repairman taken hostage. In John Smith's work creative editing techniques and humour are employed to depict a man haunted by The Black Tower.
Speakers: John Smith, Stuart Croft and Carol Morley.

Exhibition:
On The Road, 23 January 2002, Arnolfini
Artist, 20 February 2002, Arnolfini
Documents and Fictions, 20 March 2002, Arnolfini