Commotion

An exciting new touring series of programmes put together by curators from the UK , Finland, Ireland and the Netherlands. The programmes are themed and explore different issues or creative genres.

Scriptless/Utopia

Curated by Jelle Bouwhuis and featuring works by Anri Sala, Valérie Jouve and Sarah Morris, Scriptless / Utopia allows us tantalising glimpses of utopia, here, in our world. Turning the camera towards such wonderlands as Hollywood, out-of-town shopping malls and city development schemes the artists not only capture the beauty that can be found within our tangled, urban world but reflect our dreams to be a part of, or create, a utopian vision.

"As interesting and challenging as the relatively new field of the documentary genre within the art world is, in this programme the attention is drawn to video art on the other side of the coin. Instead of using verbal and narrative tools to tell the stories of misery which have become common language, they use the concepts of beauty, poetry, harmony. It's no coincidence that Anri Sala, Valérie Jouve and Sarah Morris are all visual artists, not film-makers or directors per se. They neither rely on obtrusive visions nor instructive commentary, but merely on registration of the phenomena around us and process them with formal tools, not with text. There is no determinable script in these works, narration here has been reduced to the time that it takes to play the video, there's no sense of time. There are no objective comments, no propagandistic scenes, no suggestive musical scores. The artists seem to have merely taken a look around them to see what beauty they could get."

Jelle Bouwhuis, Curator, Scriptless/Utopia

Information for venues

running time: 66 min approx

formats available: DVD, BETA SP

8 page, full colour programme notes accompany the programme

price: £95.00 + VAT

(10% discount for 3 bookings of Commotion programmes or more)

Bristol City Council licencing gave this programme a PG rating

Works included

Anri Sala (shown right)

Damni i Colori (give me the colours), 2003. 16 min

Valerie Jouve

Grand Littoral, 2003. 20 min

Sarah Morris

Los Angeles, 2004. 30 min

Picture This takes bookings from galleries for touring exhibitions and installations, from cinemas and film festivals for short films and from colleges and universities for talks. For enquiries about hiring exhibitions and for a back-list of short films available please contact Beth Alden at beth@picture-this.org.uk