THE YVONNE RAINER PROJECT
Till 23 January 2011
BFI Gallery
BFI Southbank
BFI Gallery presents 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 alike. In the last few years there have been a number of important publications on her work and museum shows dedicated to her but this is the first time she has had a gallery exhibition in the UK.
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 Rainer's 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).
Although she is renowned in the world of art because of her innovative contribution to contemporary dance, Rainer 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 CINEMAS AT BFI SOUTHBANK
Lives of Performers, 1972 (90 min)
Film about a Woman Who …, 1974 (90 min)
Kristina Talking Pictures, 1976 (125 min)
Journeys from Berlin/1971, 1980 (125 min)
The Man Who Envied Women, 1985 (125 min)
Privilege, 1990
MURDER and murder, 1996 (113 min)
Please see www.bfi.org.uk for more details
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, Mircea Cantor, Köken Ergun, Michel François, Laurent Goldring, Sonia Khurana, Florence Lazar, Bea McMahon, Natacha Nisic, Adam Roberts, Anri Sala, Beat Streuli, Ulla Von Brandenburg, Su-Mei Tse, Uri Tzaig.
ABOUT YVONNE RAINER
Yvonne Rainer was born in San Francisco in 1934. After training in modern dance in New York from 1957, she began to choreograph her own work in 1960. She was one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theatre in 1962, the genesis of a movement that proved to be a vital force in modern dance in the following decades. Rainer made a transition to filmmaking following a 15 year career as a choreographer/dancer (1960-1975). After making seven experimental feature films - Lives of Performers (1972), Privilege (1990), MURDER and murder (1996), among others - she returned to dance in 2000 via a commission from the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation for the White Oak Dance Project. Her most recent dances are AG Indexical, with a little help from H.M., a re-vision of Balanchine's Agon, RoS Indexical, a re-vision of Nijinsky's Rite of Spring and a Performa07 commission, and Spiraling Down, a meditation on soccer, aging, and war. Her dances have been performed in New York, Los Angeles, Vienna, Helsinki, Kassel, Berlin, and Sao Paolo. A memoir—Feelings Are Facts: a Life—was published by MIT Press in 2006. Rainer is currently the Claire Trevor Professor in Studio Art at the University of California, Irvine. She lives and works in California and New York.
The Yvonne Rainer Project is curated by Chantal Pontbriand.
About the BFI Gallery
BFI Southbank (located between the National Theatre and the Royal Festival Hall) has the only London contemporary art gallery specifically dedicated to commissioning and showcasing the moving image in its most contemporary forms.
BFI Gallery
BFI Southbank
Belvedere Road
London, SE1 8XT
Gallery admission free
www.bfi.org.uk/gallery
Exhibition open Tuesday to Sundays (and Bank Holiday Mondays):12 noon - 8pm
Tel: DAILY INFO: 020 7633 0274 BOX OFFICE: 020 7928 3232
Tube/BR: Waterloo
Image Credits: Portrait of Yvonne Rainer. Photo by Jack Mitchell.
