The Yvonne Rainer Project - BFI Southbank
Exhibition preview
THIS November, the BFI Gallery is presenting an exhibition dedicated to the work of the legendary American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, Yvonne Rainer (b.1934) whose practice is amongst the most influential on the newest generation of video makers and choreographers.
Entitled The Yvonne Rainer Project, it runs from November 26, 2010 to January 23, 2011.
In the last few years there have been a number of important publications on Rainer’s work, plus museum shows dedicated to her, but to date she has not had a gallery exhibition in Europe.
The exhibition, which features three of Rainer’s works in the BFI Gallery, is accompanied by screenings of her seven feature films in the BFI cinemas, and a curated programme of artists works taking place in December.
Although Rainer is renowned in the world of art because of her innovative contribution to contemporary dance, she is also remarkable because of her involvement with cinema later in her career, and her work is punctuated with references to both the history of dance and cinema.
This exhibition concentrates on the reception and transformation of ideas in her work, such as those of choreographers Vaslav Nijinsky and George Balanchine, composer Igor Stravinsky, thinkers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Sigmund Freud, and filmmaker Georg Wilhelm Pabst.
In the BFI Gallery
The BFI Gallery show features Rainer’s installation, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan: Hybrid (2002) to be shown for the first time in Europe; and installation format projections of two of her most recent choreographies (as she has returned to dance in the past ten years), filmed by Babette Mangolte, RoS Indexical (2008) and AG Indexical with a Little Help from H.M. (2007).
In the cinemas at BFI Southbank
Lives of Performers, 1972 (90 minutes).
Film about a Woman Who …, 1974 (90 minutes).
Kristina Talking Pictures, 1976 (125 minutes).
Journeys from Berlin/1971, 1980 (125 minutes).
The Man Who Envied Women, 1985 (125 minutes).
Privilege, 1990.
MURDER and murder, 1996 (113 minutes).
In the Atrium at BFI Southbank
An excerpt of Yvonne Rainer’s Lives of Performers, 1972, will be shown continuously in the Atrium.
In the studio at BFI Southbank
An accompanying curated screening programme in the BFI Studio takes place over a weekend in December. It features a presentation of Rainer’s Five Easy Pieces, alongside video work by contemporary artists who work in the style of choreography for the camera.
The artists are: Yael Bartana, Johanna Billing, Katinka Bock, Jonathan Burrows, Koken Ergun, Michel François, Laurent Goldring, Mircea Cantor, Sonia Khurana, Florence Lazar, Bea McMahon, Natacha Nisic, Anri Sala, Beat Streuli, Ulla Von Brandenburg, Su-Mei Tse, Uri Tzaig. Exact dates have yet to be announced.
Also on the South Bank this autumn: Move Choreographing You (until January 9, 2011) at the Hayward Gallery, presents work by artists and choreographers from the last 50 years and explores the relationship between visual arts, dance and performance, focusing on the active role of the viewer.
As part of the exhibition, once a week dancers will perform Yvonne Rainer’s Trio A (1966) in the gallery. Footage of performances of Rainer’s work will be shown in the exhibition’s digital archive.
Admission: Free.
Times: Tuesday to Sundays (and Bank Holiday Mondays) from 12 noon to 8pm.
BFI Gallery, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XT
Tel: Daily information: 020 7633 0274, Box Office: 020 7928 3232