SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17 at 8 PM

The Gowanus Canal is a 2 mile long waterway extending from the Bay of New York into the south of Brooklyn. Once a marsh, then the principle cargo port of the borough, the canal quickly became one of the most polluted bodies of water in the United States. In 2010 the canal was designated a Superfund site. A major cleanup is just getting underway. Surrounded by old warehouses, disused industrial sites, and vacant land, this vestige of a center of economic activity, in which nature is now reinserting itself, is a landscape that interrogates the concept and expression of Place. GOWANUS BROADSIDE (2014, 90 minutes), a film by Mikael Levin with sound by Jean-Philippe Antoine, follows the marginal spaces bordering the length of the canal, recording the spatial and sonorous qualities of this waterway’s cut into the urban space. A doubled movement of rotation and progression brings forward attributes of contingency, temporality, and indexicality central to cinematic expression of place. FILMMAKER IN ATTENDANCE!

Mikael Levin’s projects often relate to representation of place in landscape and memory, and to the relation of personal to public history. His work has been exhibited widely in the US and in Europe, including solo exhibitions at the Jewish Museum, Paris (2010), the Berardo Museum, Lisbon (2009), the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (2003), the International Center of Photography, New York (1997), and Fundacion Mendoza, Caracas (1980). He lives in New York. Additional information at mikaellevin.com

Jean-Philippe Antoine is a visual and sound artist, critic and philosopher who teaches Aesthetics at Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis. His soundworks proceed mostly from the electronic treatment of found sounds, organized music not excluded. Soundscapes is an applicable word. Antoine’s publications include a monography on Joseph Beuys, La traversée du XXe siècle (2011) and a book on Marcel Broodthaers, Moule, Muse, Méduse (2006). He has given lectures and concerts in collaboration with Leif Elggren, and has recently published Nouvelles Musiques Anciennes / Ancient New Music on Firework Edition Records.

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