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Material Aspects
2020

16 mm film projection, optical sound,
9 min 14 s loop

The essay film unfolds on the desktop of an unknown collage artist working sometime in the early 21st century. Browsing through various archival excerpts, magazines, books and photographs, the history of modernist steel and glass architecture is introduced. The film refers to the paradox Marshall Berman described in the early 1980s: the dystopian glass cities depicted in Soviet science fiction became a reality on the other side of the Iron Curtain under the conditions of the so-called free market economy. The best-known example is the transparent glass city depicted by Yevgeny Zamyatin in his 1924 novel We, in which the inhabitants are constantly monitored. The film’s medium and technique of slow cross dissolves evokes the idea of infinite transparency—of always looking through something to see its relation to something else, whether in architectural form or ideology. All of it depending on the point of view, of looking at things in a certain light. This is emphasised when the voiceover of the film suddenly addresses the viewer and tries to place their body in space and in relation to the film, its materiality and looping structure.

Please contact the studio to see the film.

 
Installation view, Tallinn Art Hall, 2020. Left: Pushpin; Right: Material Aspects

Voiceover: Aksel Haagensen

Sound recording: Peeter Salmela
Sound mastering: Jevgeni Berezovski

Optical sound mix: Luke Fowler
Analogue colour grading: Dirk DeJonghe 

Film lab: DeJonghe Film Postproduction, Kortrijk

The film’s text has used references and quotes from the following books:
Yevgeni Zamyatin, We (1924); Penguin Books, 1993

Ben Lerner, 10:04 (2014); Granta Books, 2014

Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (1982); Penguin Books, 1988

Patrick Beaver, The Crystal Palace (1970); Hugh Evelyn Limited, 1977
S.C. Burchell, Age of Progress (1966); Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V., 1974

Peter Sloterdijk, In The Interior World of Capital (2005); Polity Press, 2014

Fjodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864); Vintage Books, 1994

Nikolay Chernyshevsky, What Is To Be Done? (1863); Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1886

Produced with the support of Tallinn Art Hall & The Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Pushpin, C-print, 20.5 × 30 cm, frame 40 × 50 cm

Installation view, Tallinn Art Hall, 2020

Voiceover: Aksel Haagensen

Sound recording: Peeter Salmela
Sound mastering: Jevgeni Berezovski

Optical sound mix: Luke Fowler
Analogue colour grading: Dirk DeJonghe 

Film lab: DeJonghe Film Postproduction, Kortrijk

The film’s text has used references and quotes from the following books:
Yevgeni Zamyatin, We (1924); Penguin Books, 1993

Ben Lerner, 10:04 (2014); Granta Books, 2014

Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (1982); Penguin Books, 1988

Patrick Beaver, The Crystal Palace (1970); Hugh Evelyn Limited, 1977
S.C. Burchell, Age of Progress (1966); Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V., 1974

Peter Sloterdijk, In The Interior World of Capital (2005); Polity Press, 2014

Fjodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864); Vintage Books, 1994

Nikolay Chernyshevsky, What Is To Be Done? (1863); Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1886

Produced with the support of Tallinn Art Hall & The Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Material Aspects, 16 mm film projection, optical sound, 9 min 14 s loop. Film still.

Voiceover: Aksel Haagensen

Sound recording: Peeter Salmela
Sound mastering: Jevgeni Berezovski

Optical sound mix: Luke Fowler
Analogue colour grading: Dirk DeJonghe 

Film lab: DeJonghe Film Postproduction, Kortrijk

The film’s text has used references and quotes from the following books:
Yevgeni Zamyatin, We (1924); Penguin Books, 1993

Ben Lerner, 10:04 (2014); Granta Books, 2014

Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (1982); Penguin Books, 1988

Patrick Beaver, The Crystal Palace (1970); Hugh Evelyn Limited, 1977
S.C. Burchell, Age of Progress (1966); Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V., 1974

Peter Sloterdijk, In The Interior World of Capital (2005); Polity Press, 2014

Fjodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864); Vintage Books, 1994

Nikolay Chernyshevsky, What Is To Be Done? (1863); Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1886

Produced with the support of Tallinn Art Hall & The Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Material Aspects, 16 mm film projection, optical sound, 9 min 14 s loop. Film still.

Voiceover: Aksel Haagensen

Sound recording: Peeter Salmela
Sound mastering: Jevgeni Berezovski

Optical sound mix: Luke Fowler
Analogue colour grading: Dirk DeJonghe 

Film lab: DeJonghe Film Postproduction, Kortrijk

The film’s text has used references and quotes from the following books:
Yevgeni Zamyatin, We (1924); Penguin Books, 1993

Ben Lerner, 10:04 (2014); Granta Books, 2014

Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (1982); Penguin Books, 1988

Patrick Beaver, The Crystal Palace (1970); Hugh Evelyn Limited, 1977
S.C. Burchell, Age of Progress (1966); Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V., 1974

Peter Sloterdijk, In The Interior World of Capital (2005); Polity Press, 2014

Fjodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864); Vintage Books, 1994

Nikolay Chernyshevsky, What Is To Be Done? (1863); Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1886

Produced with the support of Tallinn Art Hall & The Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Material Aspects, 16 mm film projection, optical sound, 9 min 14 s loop. Film still.

Voiceover: Aksel Haagensen

Sound recording: Peeter Salmela
Sound mastering: Jevgeni Berezovski

Optical sound mix: Luke Fowler
Analogue colour grading: Dirk DeJonghe 

Film lab: DeJonghe Film Postproduction, Kortrijk

The film’s text has used references and quotes from the following books:
Yevgeni Zamyatin, We (1924); Penguin Books, 1993

Ben Lerner, 10:04 (2014); Granta Books, 2014

Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (1982); Penguin Books, 1988

Patrick Beaver, The Crystal Palace (1970); Hugh Evelyn Limited, 1977
S.C. Burchell, Age of Progress (1966); Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V., 1974

Peter Sloterdijk, In The Interior World of Capital (2005); Polity Press, 2014

Fjodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864); Vintage Books, 1994

Nikolay Chernyshevsky, What Is To Be Done? (1863); Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1886

Produced with the support of Tallinn Art Hall & The Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Material Aspects, 16 mm film projection, optical sound, 9 min 14 s loop. Film still.

Voiceover: Aksel Haagensen

Sound recording: Peeter Salmela
Sound mastering: Jevgeni Berezovski

Optical sound mix: Luke Fowler
Analogue colour grading: Dirk DeJonghe 

Film lab: DeJonghe Film Postproduction, Kortrijk

The film’s text has used references and quotes from the following books:
Yevgeni Zamyatin, We (1924); Penguin Books, 1993

Ben Lerner, 10:04 (2014); Granta Books, 2014

Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (1982); Penguin Books, 1988

Patrick Beaver, The Crystal Palace (1970); Hugh Evelyn Limited, 1977
S.C. Burchell, Age of Progress (1966); Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V., 1974

Peter Sloterdijk, In The Interior World of Capital (2005); Polity Press, 2014

Fjodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864); Vintage Books, 1994

Nikolay Chernyshevsky, What Is To Be Done? (1863); Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1886

Produced with the support of Tallinn Art Hall & The Cultural Endowment of Estonia
Material Aspects, 16 mm film projection, optical sound, 9 min 14 s loop. Film still.

Voiceover: Aksel Haagensen

Sound recording: Peeter Salmela
Sound mastering: Jevgeni Berezovski

Optical sound mix: Luke Fowler
Analogue colour grading: Dirk DeJonghe 

Film lab: DeJonghe Film Postproduction, Kortrijk

The film’s text has used references and quotes from the following books:
Yevgeni Zamyatin, We (1924); Penguin Books, 1993

Ben Lerner, 10:04 (2014); Granta Books, 2014

Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts Into Air (1982); Penguin Books, 1988

Patrick Beaver, The Crystal Palace (1970); Hugh Evelyn Limited, 1977
S.C. Burchell, Age of Progress (1966); Time-Life International (Nederland) B.V., 1974

Peter Sloterdijk, In The Interior World of Capital (2005); Polity Press, 2014

Fjodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground (1864); Vintage Books, 1994

Nikolay Chernyshevsky, What Is To Be Done? (1863); Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1886

Produced with the support of Tallinn Art Hall & The Cultural Endowment of Estonia
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