7 November 2012

Episode 2 sees new instalment of gallery-as-film

The second episode of a major exhibition that has seen the Cooper Gallery at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) converted into the set of an imaginary film will open later this week.

A preview of Episode 2 of Edgar Schmitz's exhibition, 'Surplus Cameo Décor', will take place on Thursday, 8th November before the latest phase opens to the public the following day.

Episode 2, entitled 'Horizontes Soroa' is set in the swimming pool of a remote Cuban resort, under refurbishment in the early 2000s, and will be open from 8th-27th November. It continues the artist's installation of ambient backdrops that turn the space into a semi-fictional hub for cinematic plots and cameo appearances by actors, directors and other celebrities documented in photo shoots in the gallery setting.

German Hollywood actor and director Ulli Lommel will visit Dundee later this month to appear as himself in the gallery setting. The plot for this second episode will be played out through a new set of architectural interventions, video works and neon signage in the gallery.

Sophia Hao, Curator at DJCAD said she was looking forward to the opening of the newest phase of the first solo exhibition in Scotland by a renowned international artist.

"We are delighted that this exciting new episode will see a cameo appearance by legendary Hollywood director Ulli Lommel," she said. "He famously collaborated with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Andy Warhol before moving to Hollywood to become the director of cult horror movies."

"Schmitz's work mobilises gallery settings toward film by orchestrating the way they oscillate between material, atmospheric and narrative promises. Across a diverse body of work including sculpture, sound, animation and writing, his sub-filmic clusters act as portals into and escape hatches from the exhibition as event.

To coincide with the exhibition, a travelling forum entitled 'Hubs and Fictions' that explores the condition of current art and the notion of 'imported remoteness' in exhibition making, will be launched at the Cooper Gallery on 30th November. It will continue at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead and Goldsmiths College in London.

Bringing together contributors of leading figures from the fields of artistic, cinematic and curatorial practice, with a geographic spread from China, Pakistan, to Germany and Britain, the forum will explore how fictions and projections overlap in different exhibition settings, and how plots play out in these.

The three episodes will take place until 14th December, with the Gallery open from 9.30am to 5pm on weekdays and 10.30am to 4.30pm on Saturdays.

More information is available at www.dundee.ac.uk/djcad/exhibitions/exhibitions/edgar-schmitz.

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