THE INAUGURAL PLASTIK Festival of artists moving images and experimental film, which will run across three weekends in February, opens in An Taibhdhearc this Saturday.
The Galway programme is curated by artist Megs Morley, and features work by Turner Prize winning Irish artist Duncan Campbell, Lebanese artist and playwright Rabih Mroué, and the late German filmmaker Harun Farocki.
The event opens at 12 noon with the PLASTIK Critical Forum Award, where new Irish works by artists engaging with moving images will be screened. At 1pm, UCC’s Laura Rascaroli will give a talk, The Film Essay As Form, detailing her current research into the essay film and its relation to film theory.
A State Within A State begins at 3pm and features screenings by Duncan Campbell, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Rabih Mroue, Anja Kirschner and David Pano, and Louis Henderson, addressing the impact of mass media, images and data on contemporary society, fantasy, history, political movements, and links between image technologies and war.
This segment concludes with a Q&A with artist filmmaker Brad Butler, from the Museum of Non-Participation, London. He will discuss the film Deep State, a montage of newly filmed and archive footage of historically resonant demonstrations. It was shortlisted for the 2012 Jarman Award.
The final event of the Galway leg of the festival is with a tribute to the work of the influential and politically motivated artist and filmmaker Harun Farocki at 8pm.
A festival pass is €11.50 through www.antaibhdhearc.com or 091 - 562024. The festival moves to Cork from February 13 to 15 and Dublin from February 20 to 22. See also plastikfestival.com
