The Musealization of Experimental Film: Historiographical Questions

This colloquium examines a shift in the reception and the theorization of experimental cinema. From the late fifties to the early nineties, experimental film was mainly addressed from within the field of independent cinema with an emphasis on medium specificity and a concomitant stress on its formal composition (framing, cutting, optical tricks, etc.). From the nineties onwards, researches on experimental film develop principally in the framework of the history and theory of contemporary art, in interaction with curatorial studies and “historical” exhibitions re-staging works of expanded cinema.
What is at stake in this change of perspective? Does it re-evaluate experimental strategies? What happens to experimental film when it is exhibited in a museum context?
The speakers will address these questions, taking as a starting place their current researches and present academic and curatorial interests. The talks will be delivered in English.

Program

9:00 Uhr
The Musealization of Experimental Film: An Introduction
(François Bovier, Lausanne; Maja Naef, Basel)

9:45-10:30
Disappearing Acts
(Eric de Bruyn, Leiden University)

11:00-11:45
The Print, the Site, and the Event: Restoring and Exhibiting Experimental Film
(Enrico Camporesi, EHESS, Paris)

14:00-14:45
A Woman Sitting After Killing (2001). Reviewing Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman (1976)
(Eva Kuhn, Universität Basel)

15:15-16:00
Scences of Cinefication
(Pavle Levi, Stanford University)

16:30-17:15
Round Table

Organization:
François Bovier (Université de Lausanne), Maja Naef (Universität Basel)