Runa Islam, Empty the pond to get the fish, 2008, 35mm film, © Runa Islam, Courtesy MUMOK. |
The Formal Elements of Filmmaking Turned in on Themselves and Society |
Runa Islam, First Day of Spring, 2005, 16mm film, Duration: 7 minutes, © Runa Islam, Courtesy Jay Jopling/ White Cube (London).
Runa Islam, First Day of Spring, 2005, 16mm film, Duration: 7 minutes, © Runa Islam, Courtesy Jay Jopling/ White Cube (London).
Runa Islam, First Day of Spring, 2005, 16mm film, Duration: 7 minutes, © Runa Islam, Courtesy Jay Jopling/ White Cube (London). |
MUMOK Museum Runa Islam, born in 1970 in Bangladesh and currently living in London, reflects in her installations and projections on the aesthetic and the illusory character of the medium of film. The MUMOK Factory exhibition will present a 35mm film installation entitled Empty the pond to get the fish recently produced in cooperation with the MUMOK in addition to two other recently made works shot on 16mm film. With this new work, Islam pursues her previous interest in the film apparatus, bringing the relationship between language and visual perception to the forefront of her concerns. In this film, the artist “writes” with the camera, that is, she moves the 35mm camera as though it were a pencil, with its movement producing the letters and words. In this way, the movement of the camera creates a contradictory perception of the space, objects and what is going on in front of the camera, which is shown in fragments only revealing what is captured in the “language” of film. The project was shot in the “Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts”, a building with a light glass architecture which was both designed to exhibit artworks while at the same time including a movie theater. In much the same way as Runa Islam’s newest work, her 16mm projections Be The First To See What You See As You See It (2004) and First Day of Spring (2005) examine the underlying principles of cinematographic production and turn the viewer’s attention towards the complex interplay of formal elements and social factors. Analysis and sensuality intermix in this context in multiple ways. Runa Islam’s film installations show the visual power, the construction and the social significance of the cinematographic image. They challenge perception, making the act of viewing itself, with all of its institutional and psychological foundations, into the object of consideration.
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Runa Islam, Be The First To See What You See As You See It, 2004, 16mm film with sound, Duration: 7 minutes, 30 seconds, © Runa Islam, Courtesy Jay Jopling/White Cube (London). |
