Benj Gerdes

Screening at National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., June 4

The National Gallery of Art will feature Strike Anywhere in a program showcasing favorites from the 2010 Flaherty International Film Seminar.

Saturday, June, 4, Time TBD.

posted February 06, 2011

e-flux journal #22: Idiot Wind. Edited by Paul Chan and Sven Lütticken

Online now. Idiot Wind: On the Rise of Right-Wing Populism in the US and Europe, and What It Means for Contemporary Art is a series of “reports” on recent right-wing populist movements and the possibilities for contemporary art in the face of these recent developments. A group of relevant artists were invited to contribute images to accompany these texts, and a still from a new video installation by Jennifer Hayashida and myself is featured in the text “Visits from the Future” by Melanie Gilligan. Other authors include Claire Bishop, Brian Holmes, Gregg Bordowitz, Hito Steyerl, Renée Green, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, and many others.

posted January 20, 2011

"Populus Tremula" at the Rotterdam International Film Festival 2011

Populus Tremula will screen at the 40th Annual Rotterdam International Film Festival as part of the program Crisis? What Crisis? on January 29 and 31. For complete information please see festival website.

The festival writes:

“The process from tree to match proves to be the perfect metaphor for the route from state to individual capitalist. Recorded on beautiful 16mm.

How the economy’s all-encompassing nature resounds in something as small as a match. Beautiful word and image experiment developed from research into the ‘match king’ Ivar Kreuger (1880-1932), the inventor of short-term capital and monopolism. His Swedish Match factories operate to this day.”

posted January 15, 2011

What is to be done? Art/Film/Politics at Centre Pompidou, Paris, December 18

Populus Tremula will screen at the Centre Pompidou on a program also featuring work by Dmity Gutov, Oliver Ressler, and Tania Brugera. This event is part of the large and ambitious series of screenings and symposia Que faire? Art/Film/Politics curated by le peuple qui manque (Kantuta Quirós & Aliocha Imhoff).

Event description: From the 11th to the 19th of December 2010, the curatorial platform, le peuple qui manque, in association with the Film department of the Centre Pompidou, proposes a series of encounters entitled “Que faire? What is to be done? art/film/politics”. These encounters offer an overview of the new critical strategies currently emerging within the international artistic field, and principally within contemporary film production, with a focus on the relationship between art and politics.

Read more at the event website (in French, click on link at upper right of their page for English).

posted December 01, 2010

Flaherty NYC Solo Screening at Anthology Film Archives, New York, September 13

FLAHERTY NYC: Films By Benj Gerdes and Jennifer Hayashida

For the September installment of the Flaherty NYC monthly screening series, The Flaherty will present an evening of short films by myself and Jennifer Hayashida including: Strike Anywhere, Populus Tremula, Iraq: Because There Are So Many, Happy Anniversary: San Francisco, March 20-21, 2003 and Terms of Service: When We Pretend, We’re in Control. There will be a post-screening discussion with the filmmakers, moderated by Flaherty NYC Programmer, Penny Lane, an independent filmmaker, video artist, educator and writer. Complete info here. Read our related interview with Penny Lane here or here.

Monday, September 13, 7:30pm, Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY.

posted September 01, 2010

Featured Filmmaker(s) at 2010 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar

Jennifer Hayashida and I were featured filmmakers at the 2010 Roberty Flaherty Film Seminar: Work, curated by Dennis Lim. Other filmmakers featured were Lisandro Alonso, Michael Glawogger, Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Eugenio Polgovsky, Uruphong Raksasad, Lucy Raven, Alex Rivera, Mika Rottenberg, Kazuhiro Soda, Zhao Dayong, and Naomi Uman.

About the program: Work consumes our daily lives – as a means of survival, a badge of identity, and a lifelong source of joy or sorrow. Bringing together a wide range of films andvideos, WORK, the 2010 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, will examine the ways in which artists depict and explore the daily rituals and larger implications of work as well as the changing nature of work and the workplace. The Seminar will provide a panoramic survey of work in its many facets – from the history of labor strife to the rise of global capitalism to the abandoned working class of post-industrial societies in America and China.

About the Flaherty: The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar is named after Robert Flaherty (1884-1951), who is considered by many to be the father of the American documentary. Flaherty’s groundbreaking documentary of Eskimo life, Nanook of the North is among the most noted films of the silent era. He was also the creator of such classic poetic films as Moana, Man of Aran, and Louisiana Story. The Seminar began in 1955 before the era of film schools when Flaherty’s widow, Frances, convened a group of filmmakers, critics, curators, musicians, and other film enthusiasts at the Flaherty farm in Vermont. For over fifty years the Flaherty Seminar has been firmly established as a one-of-a-kind institution that seeks to encourage filmmakers and other artists to explore the potential of the moving image. The films of such directors as Robert Drew, Louis Malle, the Maysle brothers, Mira Nair, Satyajit Ray, and Robert M. Young were shown at the Seminar before they were known generally in the American film community. New cinematic techniques and approaches first presented and debated at the Seminar have routinely made their way into mainstream American film.

More information here.

posted June 25, 2010

"Populus Tremula" at Migrating Forms Festival, New York, May 15

Populus Tremula, my 16mm film with Jennifer Hayashida, will screen in the Migrating Forms Festival at Anthology Film Archives on Saturday, May 15 at 2PM.

Migrating Forms complete info.

Award Update: a jury consisting of Rebecca Cleman, Ben Coonley, and Thomas Zummer chose the film for the Distinguished Recognition, Short Form award.

posted May 14, 2010

"Made in and out of USA" Screening at Koh-i-Noor, Copenhagen, May 13

Recent Political Videos Selected by Benj Gerdes

Koh-i-Noor

A screening of Strike Anywhere turned into a request for me to present a selection of works by comrades and colleagues. The program includes our project plus work by Michelle Dizon and Jesal Kapadia, all screening in Denmark for the first time. I will “attend” and lead a discussion via Skype.

Event Description: How might renewed focus on the past lead us toward new understandings of social and political possibilities in the present? How do artistic research and strategies of re-approaching history through media––documentation, commentary, & juxtaposition––produce alternate forms of experience and analysis that connect seemingly disparate geographic contexts and timeframes? These practices address the role of the nation-state, citizenship, and economic expansion within overlapping transnational trajectories of repression, colonialism, and cultural imperialism. Three videos, three distinct attempts to unearth the past in light of the present, four artists living in the United States but often working and looking elsewhere.

Complete information here.

posted May 12, 2010

"Never Very Far Apart" at REDCAT Gallery, Los Angeles, April 29 - June 27

The group exhibition brings together six projects that explore the social production of space as vehicle for renewed thought and action. Working in a variety of mediums, the artist contemplate new grounds for alternate convergences and future crossings that reinvent and reimagine the contexts in which they live and work. Other artists include Terry Chatkupt, Muchelle Dizon and Camilo Ontiveros, Adriana Lara, Elana Mann, and RJ Messineo. More information here.

Curated by Ryan Inouye.

Opening April 28 6-9PM with artists’ talk at 6PM.

posted April 27, 2010

"Strike Anywhere" at Images Festival, Toronto, April 9

“Strike Anywhere” will be shown as the centerpiece of the program “Workers Entering The Factory” at the Images Festival, Toronto, on April 9 at 5PM. Complete information here.

posted April 01, 2010

Inclusive Antagonisms: Collective Strategies for Surviving the Present

Buffalo State College Fine Arts Department

I will be giving a lecture as part of a speaker series this spring dealing with questions of collaboration and collectivity. Check department website for more details. Organized by Beth Hinderliter.

posted March 03, 2010

Trailer for "Strike Anywhere" Screening at Supermarket 2010, Stockholm, Feb 20

Watch the trailer

Supermarket 2010, Kulturhuset, Stockholm. Screening with introduction and Q&A by Michele Masucci. February 20th, 13:00.

Screening of Strike Anywhere (32:00 HD video w/ Jennifer Hayashida, 2009) with an introduction and discussion lead by Michele Masucci of Stockholm’s Filmklubben. Screening organized by the project space Artillerie Berlin as part of the “Supermarket Talks” program sidebar to this fair of artist-run spaces.

posted February 15, 2010

The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest Issue #7

Out now: A new publication of conversations and thoughts reflecting on responses to economic & environmental conditions. Includes three-way interview with Gavin Grindon, Rodrigo Nunes, and myself “Protests Past and Protest Futures: A Critical Conversation about the State of Protest and Cultural Composition.” Available free online http://joaap.org/7/7.html or in print ($7) http://www.joaap.org/press.htm#issue7.

posted January 25, 2010

"Beyond the Instance of an Ending" at Rethinking Marxism, Amherst, MA November 5

November 5th – December 10th, 2009

MARTHA ROSLER LIBRARY An e-flux project in collaboration with Martha Rosler

BEYOND THE INSTANCE OF AN ENDING Organized by Susan Jahoda and Jesal Kapadia Opening Reception Nov 6th, 4 pm.

I will be on a panel with Martha Rosler, Anton Vidokle, Bosko Blagojevic, and other participating artists, November 5, 5 pm. “Beyond the Instance of an Ending” includes my project with Jennifer Hayashida: “have you any objection do you approve.”

Herter Art Gallery, 125a Herter Hall, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003

In association with Rethinking Marxism & New Marxian Times, 7th International Conference

As art editors of the journal Rethinking Marxism, Susan Jahoda and Jesal Kapadia have brought together two projects: Martha Rosler Library and Beyond the Instance of an Ending.  Envisioning education as a social movement, as theorized by Antonio Gramsci, W.E.B Du Bois, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, these exhibitions provide a context for dialogue, one that imagines a new readership.

posted November 01, 2009

"Shifting Alliances" Panel Video

Mary Billyou has made an engaging edit of our panel from March at SCOPE Art Fair following the screening “On the Contrary: Recent Artists’ Videos in Response to War in the Middle East.”

Other Panelists: Mayaan Amir, Ruti Sela, Judy Ditner, Chen Tamir, Caroline Koebel Moderators: Mary Billyou and Meredith Drum

posted August 17, 2009

"Strike Anywhere" Screening and Discussion IASPIS Studios Stockholm July 25

Informal screening and discussion at the IASPIS Studios in Stockholm.  Saturday, July 25, 8:30 PM.

posted July 20, 2009

"Strike Anywhere" Screening at Artillerie Berlin July 22

Strike Anywhere screening and discussion at Artillerie project space.

An event organised in cooperation with Art Laboratory Berlin / Introduction by Christian de Lutz

Wednesday, 22 July 2009 at 9 pm

artillerie | Exerzierstrasse 10 | 13357 Berlin

posted July 13, 2009

Kran>>Film Space Screening Brussels July 16

Screening of new and recent work at the Kran>>Film Space in Brussels on July 16. Home of the Kran Film Collective.

posted June 12, 2009

Half-Inch Half-Life at X Initiative's "No Soul for Sale" New York June 23-29

I am a contributor to Migrating Forms’ VHS archive project “Half-Inch Half-life” at the X-Initiative’s No Soul For Sale, a festival-fair hybrid gathering non-profit arts orgs from around the world to present programs and temporary exhibitions at X’s space in the former Dia building on 22nd Street in Chelsea, June 23–29, 1pm–9pm each day.

Luleå Biennial 2009 "Risk" June 17-August 23

My new video with Jennifer Hayashida, Strike Anywhere will be shown in the Luleå Biennial in northern Sweden. Exhibition organized by the Kilen Art Group and curated by Jan-Erik Lundström. The show opens June 17 and runs through August 23.

How Occupation Works at Left Forum and Migrating Forms

16Beaver has organized a two-part weekend bridging two other New York forums the weekend of April 18-19, Left Forum and the Migrating Forms Festival. Both deal with occupation as a strategy. The first event is an open workshop/conversation with folks involved in various struggles that have used occupation. The second is an open screening which will hopefully help us think through how occupation as resistance does and does not interact with forms of state and territorial occupation.

Read all about it on the 16Beaver page here.

posted April 12, 2009

Spring 2009 Ivar Kreuger Revival

My soon-to-be-completed video project with Jennifer Hayashida about the “Match King” Ivar Kreuger arrives at a moment of renewed interest in his financial dealings. Some high-profile write-ups of Kreuger include (some of these require subscriptions to read the whole article):

• Ron Chernow’s “Madoff and His Models” in the New Yorker

• NPR’s Marketplace story “Before Madoff, there was Krueger”

• “Fraud and Financial Innovation” a story about Kreuger from The Economist

Many of these accounts draw on research from one source, which is Frank Partnoy’s new book The Match King. Have we been scooped? No, not really, we’ve got a lot of original research of our own. Our conclusions are also quite different, or, to put it politely: we’re really using the history of Kreuger’s financial dealings to a different end. Since beginning this project three years ago we have felt part of an informal network of scholars and Kreuger experts–a research syndicate–and it’s actually very nice to see some dialogue about how the economic history of the last century informs the present. When describing the project to people we meet, it’s also nice to go from being asked, “How did you hear about that?” to some level of familiarity or interest.

It has been difficult to finish the project simply because the parallels to the present keep shifting, as the present crisis continues to unfold (unravel). When we began the project the allegorical element was more of a foreboding than a fact, gestured to but not explicitly addressed, but over the past year we’ve reshaped the project substantially.

posted March 23, 2009

Ceci n'est pas une CAA at Public School, Los Angeles

Pedro Lasch, Kirsten Forkert, and I (performing as 16 Beaver Group) will be having a conversation alongside Abigail Satinsky of InCUBATE (Chicago) at Ceci n’est pas une CAA. This is happening Friday and Saturday, February 27-28, and organized by The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest with/at Public School.  We’ll be there Saturday at 3PM.  Some very good folks involved, we’re excited to be in dialogue with them West Coast-style.  Their description:

The Public School is hosting its own conference with many of the same amazing people who are visiting Los Angeles for CAA. Ours will be free; it will be modeled as a long, open, informal conversation, occasionally interrupted by screenings and short presentations; and it will encourage as much overlap, cross-pollination, and running over time as possible. Drop in and drop out when you can – the following schedule is a guide to what might be happening.

posted February 25, 2009

Panel and Screening at SCOPE New York 09

My video in collaboration with Jennifer Hayashida Because There are So Many: Iraq (8:00, 2007) will be showing at SCOPE New York at Lincoln Center on Thursday, March 5 as part of the 6-hr screening program On the Contrary: Recent Artists’ Videos Concerning War in the Middle East curated by Mary Billyou and Meredith Drum.  In addition, I will be speaking the same evening on a panel moderated by Mary and Meredith with Martha Rosler, Caroline Koebel, Chen Tamir and Judy Ditner.

Screening Program 1 12pm–2pm Iraq Featuring works by Paul Chan; Mary Patten; Benj Gerdes and Jennifer Hayashida; Sabine Gruffat; Caroline Koebel; Harun Farocki; Jenny Perlin; and The Yes Men.

Panel Discussion 6pm–8pm Shifting Alliances A round table discussion moderated by Mary Billyou and Meredith Drum with Martha Rosler, Benj Gerdes, Chen Tamir, Judy Ditner, Caroline Koebel, Maayan Amir and Ruti Sela.

Directions and more information online at On The Contrary and SCOPE NY 09.

posted February 12, 2009

Presenting at CAA

I will be presenting on a (soon to not be) anonymous media intervention of mine at the College Art Association conference in Los Angeles at the end of February.

Radical Art Caucus Panel: “Migration Struggles and Migratory Aesthetics”
Saturday, February 28, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM
Chairs: Karen Kurczynski, Kirsten Forkert
The other presenters are Henrik Lebuhn and Carla Herrera-Prats

posted January 14, 2009