ABOUT DEPICTING LOVE
Love is rather a relative notion. Rarely is it the object of serious study, although it is omnipresent in music, film, literature, drama and, of course, life. The word calls to mind a very mixed range of associations, from the most irredeemably kitsch marketing strategies to the most intimate facets of our existence or the icons that make up our collective memory. Translated into images: the hearts and Cupids in the window-displays on Saint Valentine’s Day, the attractive young couples used to promote the sale of all kinds of products (holidays, cars, cosmetics, perfumes, tobacco, drinks, etc.), memories of our own personal experiences, the kiss of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca…
The concept of love is bound up with essential notions such as identity, social and personal relationships and politics. From the scientific point of view, it is seen as a relative notion. The researches and explanations of psychologists, sociologists, economists, biologists and anthropologists serve to create the small individual pieces of a puzzle that makes sense when it is observed in its entirety. Thus, psychoanalysts interpret amorous behaviour as the product of our early experiences as children, biologists reduce it to a series of chemical reactions, sociologists explain new forms of personal relations as a reaction to the appearance of new diseases, and even economists observe a link between the frequency of affairs in the work environment and the company’s end-of-year balance sheets.
Depicting Love engages the notion of love from a number of different perspectives. The project takes as its starting point an essential book by Roland Barthes A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments(1). Perhaps the most significant thing about this book is its formulation, which questions the different ways of reporting the experience of the subject as lover. The book is articulated on the basis of notions (ordered from A to Z) that the author defines in terms of both theoretical and personal approaches.
On a formal level, the project Depicting Love consists of two clearly differentiated parts: – a programme of screenings that takes seven key notions from Barthes’ book in order to present video projects by international artists in conjunction with feature films; – a DVD compilation of new productions by a dozen international artists, created specifically for this context.
In this way, the project Depicting Love takes the form of a kind of mobile —and thus versatile and dynamic— exhibition. At the same time this format reflects the present reality of our increasingly standardized societies in which the mobility and the questioning of the sense of ‘place’ have come to be seen as priority factors. In this context, too, the experience of the image is inescapably associated to the image in movement. Depicting Love, the programme of screenings being presented over seven consecutive days, is made up of a score of video projects by different artists and seven films that, from their different times and contexts, have reflected on the subject of love and are now being screened in relation to seven key notions from Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse. Thus, the programme entitled Affirmation consists of projects by Zbig Rybczynski, Pipilotti Rist, Chris Cunningham and Annika Ström. Ulay/Abramovic, Yael André and Sadie Benning, among others, have addressed the Barthesian idea of Encounter. Rivane & Sergio Neuenschwander, Valie Export and Rui Calçada Bastos are included in the programme entitled Letter, while Heman Chong and Jordi Moragues, among others, have engaged with the notion of Signs. The projects by Lutz Mommartz, Bas Jan Ader and Nuria Channel explore the idea of the Unbearable. Bjørn Melhus, A. P. Komen/Karen Murphy, Sophie Calle & Greg Shephard and Gino Rubert are featured in the programme Unknowable. Finally, Christian Jankowski, Lorna Simpson and Vito Acconci have centred on the idea of Waiting. The selection of films screened during the sessions includes Darling (1965) by John Schlesinger, Brief Encounter (1945) by David Lean, Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liasons (1989), and A Short Film About Love (1988) by Krzysztov Kiesslowski, among others. The DVD Depicting Love brings together a series of new projects that use photography, drawing, the moving image, text, sound, Internet links and other possibilities too numerous to list here suggested by the artists invited to take part in this project: Chema Alvargonzález, Martí Anson, Maurycy Gomulicki, Leiko Ikemura, Andreas M. Kaufmann, Yves Netzhammer, Mabel Palacín, Susan Philipsz, Francesc Ruiz, Jan Rothuizen, Sam Samore and Young-Hae Chang. The variety of proposals and approaches here —ludic, ironic, poetic, critical or committed— combine to create a multifaceted definition of the notion of love and provide a release from the prejudices that trivialize or deny the political transcendence of issues that engage deeply with the individual dimension and the realm of personal subjectivity.
(1) Translation from French: R. Howard, J. Cape, London, 1975; Original edition: Roland Barthes, Fragments d’un Discours Amoureux, Paris, 1975; Editions du Soleil.
(text booklet)
LOVE LOVE LOVE: Love is in the Air. All is full of Love. All you need is Love… Love is omnipresent in music, film, literature, theatre and, of course, life. Although the notion of love is bound up with essential praxes such as identity, social and personal relationships and politics, it has rarely been the object of serious study. From the scientific point of view, it is regarded as a relative notion. The researches and explanations of psychologists, sociologists, economists, biologists and anthropologists serve to create the small individual pieces of a puzzle that makes sense when it is observed in its entirety. Psychoanalysts see amorous behaviour as the product of our early experiences as children, biologists reduce it to a series of chemical reactions, sociologists explain new forms of personal relationships as a reaction to the appearance of new diseases, and even economists note a link between the frequency of affairs in the work environment and the company’s end-of-year balance sheets.
Depicting Love seeks to engage this notion from a number of different perspectives and at the same time sets out to raise some crucial issues. The project Depicting Love, which consists of a programme of screenings and the present DVD, takes as its starting point a seminal book by Roland Barthes, Fragments d’un Discours Amoureux (Editions du Soleil, Paris, 1975). Perhaps the most significant thing about this book is its formulation, in questioning the different ways of communicating the experience of the subject as lover. Barthes proposes a portrait (structural more than biographical) in which the subject who loves speaks to her/himself, in confrontation with the loved subject, who does not speak. The book is articulated on the basis of notions (ordered from A to Z) that the author defines in terms of both theoretical and personal approaches.
Chema Alvargonzález, Martí Anson, Maurycy Gomulicki, Oliver Held, Leiko Ikemura, Andreas M. Kaufmann, Mabel Palacín, Susan Philipsz, Francesc Ruiz, Jan Rothuizen, Sam Samore and Young-Hae Chang are the twelve international artists who have taken up the invitation to create a new work using Barthes’ book as a point of departure, inspiration or reflection. In this way, the DVD Depicting Love takes the form of a kind of mobile —and thus versatile and dynamic— exhibition in which the contributions of the artists, in a wide variety of formats, assume the status of original projects.
The affirmation of love (in spite of all), the absence of the loved one and the interminable waiting, the desire that the loved one meet our expectations, the uncertainty of the signs, the elation of the first encounter free from the difficulties that every affective relationship entails, the uncontainable desire, the enigma that the other represents and the burdens of the past that we all carry with us are among the aspects that the artists explore in their projects.
The variety of proposals and approaches here —ludic, ironic, poetic, critical or committed— combine to create a multifaceted definition of the notion of love and provide a release from the prejudices that trivialize or deny the political transcendence of issues that engage with the individual or personal dimension.
(texts screening program)
Depicting Love, the programme of screenings being presented over seven consecutive days, is made up of a score of video works by different artists and seven feature films that, from their different times and contexts, have reflected on the subject of love and are now being screened in relation to seven key notions from Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse: affirmation, encounter, letter, sings, unbearable, unknowable and waiting.
The variety of proposals and approaches here —ludic, ironic, poetic, critical or committed— combine to create a multifaceted definition of the notion of love and provide a release from the prejudices that trivialize or deny the political transcendence of issues that engage deeply with the individual dimension and the realm of personal subjectivity.
Screening Program:
Affirmation
(Against and in spite of everything, the subject affirms love as value. Bejahung – Entgegen und trotz allem bejaht das Subjekt die Liebe als Wert)
Depicting Love, 2004. DVD. 3’08” – Oliver Held
Imagine, 1986. DVD. 3’20”– Zbig Rybczynski
I am a victim of this song, 1995. DVD. 5’ – Pipilotti Rist
All is Full of Love, 1999. DVD. 4’12” – Chris Cunningham
Ten New Love Songs, 1999. DVD. 22’ – Annika Ström
Darling – John Schlesinger. GB 1965. 35 mm. 122’
Encounter
(The figure refers to the happy interval immediately following the first ravishment, before the difficulties of the amorous relationship begin. Begegnung – Die Figur bezieht sich auf die glückliche Zeit unmittelbar nach der ersten Verzückung, bevor sich noch die Komplikationen der Liebesbezeiehung bemerkbar machen)
Depicting Love, 2004. DVD. 3’08” – Oliver Held
It wasn’t love, 1992. DVD. 20’ – Sadie Benning
Relation in space, 1976. DVD. 14’52” – Ulay/Abramovic
One Night, 1997. DVD, 26’09” – Jordi Moragues
Histoires d’Amour, 1997. DVD. 60’ – Yael André
Brief Encounter – David Lean. GB 1945. 35 mm. 86’
Letter
(This figure refers to special dialectic of the love letter, both blank (encoded) and expressive (charged with longing to signify desire). Brief – Die Figur zielt auf die besondere Dialektik des Liebesbriefes ab, der leer (codiert) und zugleich expressiv ist (von dem Bedürfnis getragen, das Verlangen mitzuteilen))
Depicting Love, 2004. DVD. 3’ 08”- Oliver Held
Quadrifoglio, 2000. DVD. 7’56” – Rui Calçada Bastos
Breath Text: Love Poem, 1970-73. DVD. 2’30” – Valie Export
Love Lettering, 2002. DVD. 6’22” – Rivane & Sergio Neuenschwander
Dangerous Liasions – Stephen Frears. USA/GB 1989. 35 mm. 120’
Signs
(Whether he seeks to prove his love, or to discover if the other loves him, the amorous subject has no system of sure signs at his disposal. Zeichen – Sei es, daß es ihm seine Liebe beweisen will, sei es, daß es sich zu enträtseln müht, ob der Andere es liebt: dem liebenden Subjekt steht keinerlei sicheres Zeichensystem zur Verfügung)
Depicting Love, 2004. DVD. 3’08” – Oliver Held
Love Story, 1998. DVD. 2’30” – Antoni Abad
Pale Testament, 1999-2000. DVD. 8’8” – Heman Chong
A Short Film about Love – Krzystov Kiesslowski. P 1988. 35 mm. 87’
Unbearable
(The sentiment of an accumulation of amorous sufferings explodes in this cry: “This can’t go on…”. Unerträglich – Das Gefühl einer Häufung von Liebeskümmernissen zerbirst in dem Aufschrei: „Es kann nicht, es kann nicht so bleiben“)
Depicting Love, 2004. DVD. 3’08” – Oliver Held
I am too sad to tell you, 1971. DVD. 1’57” – Bas Jan Ader
Basic Kit, 1994. DVD. 4’ – Nuria Canal
Als wär’s von Beckett, 1976. DVD. 20’ – Lutz Mommartz
Le Roman de Werther – Max Ophüls. F 1938. 35 mm. 85’
Unknowable
(Efforts of the amorous subject to understand and define the loved being “in itself”, by some standard of character type, psychological or neurotic personality, independent of the particular data of the amorous relation. Unbegreiflich – Versuche des liebenden Subjekts, das geliebte Wesen „an sich“ zu verstehen und im Sinne des charakterologischen, psychologischen oder neurotischen Typs zu definieren, unabhängig von den besonderen Gegebenheiten der Liebesbeziehung)
Depicting Love, 2004. DVD. 3’08” – Oliver Held
The Love Loop, 2002. DVD. 2’26” – Gino Rubert
Das Zauberglas, 1991. DVD. 6’ – Bjørn Melhus
Love Bites, 1998. DVD. 11’ – A.P.Komen / Karen Murphy
Double Blind (No sex last night), 1992. 35 mm. 76’ – Sophie Calle & Greg Shephard
Le Mariage d’Alex – Jean-Marie Teno. C/F 2002. 35 mm. 45’
Waiting
(Tumult of anxiety provoked by waiting for the loved being, subject to trivial delays (rendezvous, letters, telephone calls, returns). Erwartung – Angstaufwallung, die durch das Warten auf das geliebte Wesen ausgelöst wird, nach Maßgabe kleiner Verspätungen (Verabredungen, Telephonanrufe, Briefe, Heimkehrverzögerungen))
Depicting Love, 2004. DVD. 3’08” – Oliver Held
Let’s get Physical/Digital, 1997. DVD. 20’ – Christian Jankowski
Call Waiting, 1997. DVD. 13’11” – Lorna Simpson
Die Ehe der Maria Braun – Rainer Werner Fassbinder. D 1978. 35 mm. 120’
