Art/Action: Artists’ Films
Modern Art Oxford
Tuesday 20 February - Sunday 11 March 2018
Art/Action was a three-part artist film programme. Each pioneering film introduces viewers to artistic expressions of socio-political concerns. They investigate political repression and raise awareness of issues often marginalised by freedom of speech violations and media control.
SUPERFLEX, Burning Car, 2008, 11 minutes
20 – 25 February
Burning Car shows the stages of a car being burnt out from start to finish. Such imagery is most readily associated with protest and social tension happening in war-torn countries and dictatorships. However, this emblematic imagery is also indicative of the difficult relationships faced between Western societies and their changing populations, particularly evident during the London riots (2011).
Ana Teresa Fernández, Erasing the Border (Borrando La Frontera), 2012, 3:38 minutes
27 February – 4 March
This film captures one of a series of political actions that the artist took on the border wall between Mexico and US. Through the subversive act of painting out part of the wall, the border becomes a diminished concept, undermined by the relative ease with which it can be visually altered and callenged.
Anna Maria Maiolino, In-out (Antropofagia), 1973, 8:14 minutes
6 – 11 March
A comment on both censorship in Brazil and the frustrations of an artist whose creativity has been ‘gagged’ by the perceived position of motherhood, this film displays male and female mouths taking part in wordless actions whereby objects or substances are placed upon, taken in, or expelled from the orifices.
