It’s a Poor Sort of Memory That Only Works Backwards

This reader brings together the most insightful dialogues and critiques on the work of Johan Grimonprez (*1962 in Belgium) and assembles fragments of his film scripts for the very first time. Kobarweng or Where is Your Helicopter? strikes at the heart of what constitutes a bastard child of colonialism: the legacy of anthropological discourse. dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y unwraps the hidden dimensions of our mediatized culture in terms of the news spectacle and its cultivation of fear, oblivion, and catastrophe. Double Take uses the image of Alfred Hitchcock to navigate through disconcerting double images resulting from cinema and television, capitalism and communism, commercials and warfare. Maybe the Sky Is Really Green, and We’re Just Colorblind serves as sketchbook for Johan Grimonprez which he uses to expand on existing themes and explore new ones.

Exhibition schedule: Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston, January 15–April 2, 2011 | S.M.A.K., Ghent, October 15, 2011–January 8, 2012