Lawrence Weiner
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Lawrence Weiner, Plowmans Lunch, 1982
Production shot
Production de Appel arts centre, Amsterdam
Cinema of People: Films by Lawrence Weiner
Co-curated with Mélanie Bouteloup
Bétonsalon, Paris
December 7 and 14, 2007
Cinema of People: Films by Lawrence Weiner
While Lawrence Weiner’s work is best known in the form of textual annotations, presented on walls of exhibition spaces or in public spaces, the artist uses also video and film since the late 60s to present his artworks. These films, rarely shown until recently, can shed new light on his practice: taking the form of fictions and using structures inspired by New Wave cinema, they fit awkwardly in the category of conceptualism in which Weiner’s work is often classified. Questions of production and distribution, as well as the collaborative aspect of the cinematographic production, occupy a central place in this work, thus laying the foundation for a “cinema of people”: “I wanted a situation that would allow me to get out of the ivory tower of the studio, where all the decisions are made by the artist. With my films, I found myself in a position where, since there were things that I didn’t know how to do myself, I had to convince others that the project was worthwhile.” The three films presented in this first screening address questions of space, place and displacement as recurrent themes in Weiner’s work, and stage the interactions of characters confronted by these problematics.
First part
Plowmans Lunch, 1982
Passage to the North, 1981
Altered to Suit, 1979
Second part
A First Quarter, 1973