EXPO VIDEO 2015

Curated by Alfredo Cramerotti | MOSTYN

Presented in partnership with Columbia College Chicago, EXPO VIDEO highlights a selection of dynamic and cutting-edge film, video, and new media works by artists selected from EXPO CHICAGO 2015 Exhibitors. Occurring daily starting at 11:00am. The works on view are presented in a variety of screening formats including four viewing stations designed by Studio Gang Architects. New this year, two dedicated screening rooms on the west end of Festival Halls A and B, as well as an interactive app for mobile iOS devices (downloadable for free from the iTunes store) will allow patrons to experience this fluid program in a versatile way. Whether through entering the screening rooms, standing in front of the pods, or holding a mobile device, the viewer will have the chance to travel in space and time. 

Futuro Anteriore

Selected by 2015 EXPO VIDEO Curator Alfredo Cramerotti
With research input by Lauren Mele

A screening program of films and videos at the crossroad of contemporary art and cinema

Program Statement

The futuro anteriore (future perfect or future compound in the English language) is a verb form that indicates events, experiences, and facts that are considered, but remain part of the future. The tense is often used to express assumptions or uncertainty when one is not sure that certain actions have taken place, or will take place.

The apparent contradiction at the basis of futuro anteriore is similarly present in the selection of films and videos on view in the 2015 EXPO VIDEO program. Featuring neither straight experimental video art that anticipates future trends, nor short film that exists as part of a visual tradition, the quality and innovative strength of the works presented make them unique in many respects. Like the potential for the creative use of a language is exemplified by the future perfect form, these exceptional artists' films and videos open up a new territory of cinematic experience, where the viewer is at the center of the work, and experiences something rarely accessible outside film festivals, exhibitions, or specific surveys.

The works on view are presented in a series of screening programs that include two screening rooms, four pods designed by Studio Gang Architects, and an interactive app* for mobile iOS devices (downloadable from the iTunes store). Each of the moving image programs is curated through this association of ideas and aesthetic approaches, rather than by chronological criterion or running time order. Whether through entering the screening rooms, standing in front of the pods, or holding an Apple device, the viewer will have the chance to travel in space and time.

These selected works, by visual artists and filmmakers, immerse guests and characters alike into stunning exteriors or intimate situations; foolish trips or sublime reflections; historical revisions or psychological suspense. Various cinema industry mechanisms and established genres are present in this program selection—from Hollywood glamour to the Lumière brothers—yet, at the same time, a huge range of visual innovations and experimental artistic approaches are embedded within these works. Embedded within the contemporary art world’s strategies of making and display, the combination of moving image works on view makes the program a unique chance to experience visual culture today. 

—Alfredo Cramerotti

Participating Artists

Yuri Ancarani | Il Capo, 2010, 15:00 min | Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi
Hans Op de Beeck | Night Time, 2015, 18:41 min | Marianne Boesky Gallery
Sue de Beer | Silver and Gold, 2011, 1:32 min, Marianne Boesky Gallery
Johanna Billing | I’m gonna live anyhow until I die, 2012, 16:29 min | Kavi Gupta
Jeremy Blake | Winchester Redux, abridged version of the Winchester trilogy, 2004, 5:00 min | Honor Fraser
Chris Burden |The Rant, 2006, 2:10 min, Massimo De Carlo
*Stan Douglas | Circa 1948, 2014 (interactive app for iOS devices), David Zwirner
Fischli & Weiss | The Way Things Go, 1987, 30:00 min, Matthew Marks Gallery
Morgan Fisher | Turning Over, 1975, 15:00 min, Bortolami / Galerie Buchholz
Luis Gispert and Jeff Reed | Stereomongrel, 2005, 12:00 min, Rhona Hoffman Gallery
Runa Islam | Trust, 2008, 3:00 min, White Cube
Christian Jankowski | 16mm Mystery, 2004, 3:54 min, Lisson Gallery
Malerie Marder | At Rest, 2011, 12:06 min, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects
Ciprian Muresan | 3D Rubliov, 2004, 4:49 min, David Nolan Gallery
Carolee Schneemann | Fuses, 1964 – 66, 18:00 min, Hales Gallery / P.P.O.W
Cauleen Smith | Remote Viewing, 2011, 14:00 min, Corbett vs. Dempsey
Levi van Veluw | Spheres, The Collapse of Cohesion, 9:43 min, rosenfeld porcini

Columbia College Chicago Film/Video Student Winners:

Kellee Terrell, Blame, 2015, 15:09 min
Julian Walker, Jordan Due, Third Timothy, 16:21 min

*Please note that Circa, 1948 by Stan Douglas, part of the film & video program, is an app that is functional on a smartphone or tablet and is not on view in the screening rooms or pods. To obtain the artwork, visit apple.co/1mn4DNm.

About Alfredo Cramerotti

Internationally acclaimed writer and curator in modern and contemporary art, film, video, photography and new media, Cramerotti's work includes the theory and practice of “expanded photography: the hyperimage,” which investigates digital culture’s impact on artistic and curatorial practices, and “aesthetic journalism”, a concept he created to investigate the relationship between contemporary exhibitions and elements of interview, documentary, fiction and reportage. He directs MOSTYN, Wales’ foremost contemporary art institute, and is Head Curator of APT Artist Pension Trust as well as the roaming curatorial agencies AGM Culture and CPS Chamber of Public Secrets.

Amongst other exhibitions, in 2015 he co-curated the Mauritius Pavilion at the 56th Venice Art Bienniale, Italy and Sequences VII, real-time festival biennial in Reykjavik, Iceland; in 2013, the Maldives Pavilion and the Wales Pavilion at the 55th Venice Art Bienniale, Italy; and in 2010, Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, Region of Murcia, Spain. Cramerotti is Editor in Chief of the Critical Photography series by Intellect Books, and his own publications include the book Aesthetic Journalism: How to inform without informing (2009) and Unmapping the City: Perspective on Flatness (2010).