NEW NARRATIVES
Stockfish Festival is happy to invite Physical Cinema Festival programmer Helena Jónsdóttir to compile a program we call NEW NARRATIVES – creative films and video art. The program is a combination of physical performance, visual arts, sound design, music and cinema together in an exciting mix. The short films and installations are innovative and refreshing in their approach. Some films have un- and conventional storylines, some are abstract, and other installations deconstruct or render a poetic experience of time and space. Celebrating the creativity in the field of film and video with the audience. The works are created by well known film- and video artists around the world. Majority of the program has never been screened in Iceland and we have several premiers. Collaboration with the Icelandic Film Museum where we will screen hidden treasures. The video installations and films are screened in the cinema rooms at Bio Paradís, and as video installations in Bió Paradís, Instillations at Reykjavík City hall, The nordic house and Tjarnarbíó. At Mengi there will be live concerts with projections. Outdoor projections will be at several places in the center of Reykjavík City during the festival dates. Over 20 works will be screened at the festival.
outdoor screenings
Outdoor screenings around the town
23. marCH – 2. aprIL
20:00 – 23:00
- Reykjavik´s Town Hall – Snapshots from the Icelandic Film Archive by Óskar Gíslason and Hannes Pálsson
- Héraðsdómur Reykjavíkur – Slave Unit by Cel Crabeels
- Tjarnarbíó – Nature See You by Erik Bunger
- Mengi (23. -26. mars and 30.mars – 2. april) – Ego by Nicolas Provost
city hall
23. marCH – 2. aprIL
10:00 – 18:00
3 video installations in Reykjavík´s City Hall. Art by Teresa Cos and Cel Crabeels.
BÍÓ PARADÍS
Hverfisgata 54
23. march – 2. aprIl
17:00 – 23:00
Video installations at the foyer Bíó Paradís. Art by Lukas Marxt, Steve Reinke, Samuel James and Rosie Dennis.
25. march
19:00 – ROOM 2
Dance and film
International program with award winning films
A collaboration with Cinedans EYE filmmuseum
Amsterdam, Argos centre for audiovisual arts in Brussel and selected films from France, Finland, Holland, Scotland, Belgium and Canada
MENGI
Óðinsgata 2
23.-25. march & 30.-31. march
12:00 – 18:00
Video installations by Xavier Curnillon and Thomas Corriveau
25. march
12:00 – 17:00
Benni Hemm Hemm premier music video and other works.
29. march
20:00
International Piano day with Miro Kepinski,
Sævar Jóhansson and Eðvarð Egilsson with video art from Physical Cinema https://www.pianoday.org/
31. march
20:00
Special concert with Agalma Improv Ensemble with selected works from Physical Cinema Fest
THE NORDIC HOUSE
Sæmundargata 11
23. marCH – 2. aprIl
Video installations by international artists Thomas Freundlich, Valtteri Reikallio, Erik Bunger and Sandra Ceco. Opening hours same as the house.
1. – 2. aprIl
New Narratives take over with video installations by international artists, Helgi Örn Pétursson, Elke Dreier, Thomas Freundlich, Valtteri Reikallio and Sandra Ceco.
Elísabet Birta Sveinsdóttir will be present in the Greenhouse.
Bíó paradís
mirages
Xavier Curnillon – 7:30 min
Explore the deepest details of the body with this experimental short film that captures dancers in unprecedented proximity. Quebec choreographer Emmanuel Jouthe, French filmmaker Xavier Curnillon and Quebec composer Antoine Berthiaume capture the organic dimension of human bodies in an original way, bearing witness to their strengths, beauties and diversities.
second hand stories
Danielle van Vree – 24:47 min
Second Hand Stories is a film about our relationship to the other and the patterns we develop within these relationships. Rituals we use to shape our lives, or patterns we get stuck in and lead to stagnation. The film is located in a second-hand store. A place full of objects; bits of life left behind by their owners. During the night we discover fragments of stories that could have been lived by all of us.
cold storage
Thomas Freundlich and Valtteri Reikallio – 8:45 min
Cold Storage is a short dance film that pays homage to the virtuosic physical performances and melancholy comedy of the classic silent screen. On a desolate arctic shore, a lonely ice fisherman discovers his prehistoric counterpart frozen in the sea ice, and thaws him out as his newfound soul brother. A wild all-night drinking and dancing party in the fisherman’s tent ensues, but in the harsh light of the morning he must once again confront his own loneliness and dependency. As the ice melts under the foundations of his life, he is forced to even question the reality of the space and time surrounding him.
blind dreamers
Sandra Geco – 6:17 min
A visual fable with poetic notes that oscillate between reality and surrealism to reveals a universe mixing plastic, landscape and poetry.
We discover a couple looking like René Magritte’s lovers who have exchanged their veil against a plastic bag.
In research of sensitivity, this video fable question our rupture with the rest of the living world and our (in)ability to identify with it.
We are this living being caught in a trap: how could we forget about it?
enlightment
Lisa Magnan – 3 min
This film talks about identity, autorisation and freedom.It is a story about a woman that experiences a turning point in her life. 4 women are stuck in a room repeating the same actions again and again in a mecanic way.
One day, one of them realises that this life doesn’t suit her anymore when a detail in the room draws her attention. It is the clic, her need for freedom gives her the courage, the strength to get out of the door.
A film that questions our ascent towards the light and our relationship to family loyalties that sometimes prevent us from allowing ourselves to be/do what we really want to.
dive
Director Oscar Sansom with the Schotish Ballet – 14 min
Directed by Oscar Sansom won the top award at the 2022 Cinedans festival. It was awarded the Jury Prize for Best Dance Short. We are so grateful and overjoyed to see the film be shared with more audiences around the world. Oscar joined the ceremony in Amsterdam virtually to receive the award and prize. In his speech he thanked the incredible creative team who made this film a reality including Choreographer Sophie Laplane, creative collaborator James Bonas, Scottish Ballet’s creative director Chris Hampson, producers Beth Allan & Tony Currie, DOP David Liddell and the incredible crew and cast, including a special mention to Sophie Martin who is leaving Scottish Ballet after almost 20 years with the company
uzco
Director: Xavier Curnillon
Director of photography: Yann-Manuel Hernandez
Performer: Jérémie Galdeano Choreography:Vera Kvarcakov og Jérémy Galdeano
2 min
How a moving body, accustomed to the constraints of a space, can evolve when it accesses a larger space, the immensity, the beauty of nature.
on mending
Directors and Choreographers Shawn Fitzgerald Ahern and Emilie Leriche
15 min
“Is healing inevitably intertwined with being broken? Are we not more curious for being incomplete, and more beautiful for being impermanent? We admire resilience, yet resilience cannot exist without difficulties.”
they dance with their heads
Thomas Corriveau Choreography Marc Béland
8:30 min
The severed head of a choreographer is held captive by an eagle on a desert island. With a dazzling mastery of drawing and painting, this animated short unexpectedly takes us into the sensitive world of an artist madly in love with dance.
car in desert driving in circles
Lukas Marxt – 7 min
A mountain range on the horizon separates the cloudy sky from the dusty desert soil of the El Mirage Dry Lake, with the sounds of a distant roar. In the long shot, the gaze shows a detail of the Californian Mojave landscape, whose static panorama forms the referential and also material background for Circular Inscription. In a performative tracing of a vehicle´s path, Lukas Marxt initiates and documents in his cinematic work, the process of inscription that gives the film its title: a seemingly unmanned white car rolls into the image and begins to spin in eccentric rounds in the middle of the dried out lake. The vehicle draws its circles uniformly, from inside to outside, the squealing of the tires continuously rising. In doing so, the tire tracks furrow spiral-shaped in the desert surface, leaving behind marks in the soil of this culturally imbued landscape – a favorite shooting site for Hollywood films and advertisements, a popular venue for car races and their media exploitation, a site tightly bound to the art-historical movement, Land Art.
a day for cake and accidents
Steve Reinke – 4:10 min
Reinke continues to explore the quirky possibilities of the animation film, collaborating once again with Jessie Mott, who delivers her idiosyncratic drawings, paintings and collages, plus also wrote the accompanying texts. References to cartoons and comics are once more evident, though Reinke stays somewhat of a league of its own. ‘A Day for Cake and Accidents’ brings up the parade of animals that refer to mythology and saga – a double headed unicorn or a sphinx-like creature for instance – as seen before in Reinkes earlier ‘Everybody’.
In a deadpan matter-of-fact manner these creatures state and comment, ranging from simple axiomatic facts (“Today is our Birthday”) over comical philosophical-like statements (“The moon is melting”, “Saturn is cracking”) to completely absurd remarks (“It gives me a small egg, provokes my tendency for coma”). Driven by a thumping techno beat or the snare of a drum-computer plus a nimbly montage, Reinke opts once again for the short format of the music video (not to mention the tons of musical references to pop culture). As the title of this work points out, this brave ‘A Day for Cake and Accidents’ refuses to take a clean-cut position. Not able to choose between fantasy or reality, between irony or melancholy, nor between light-footedness or defeatism, this piece disconcerts and discomforts as it amuses oh so strongly at the same time.
follow the bias
Rosie Dennis.
Choreography: Alicia Harvie, Ashleigh White, Viviane Frehner
Shot in the subtropical east coast region of Australia, Follow the Bias is a triptych exploring the hypnotic rhythms and patterns inspired by the everyday choreography of lawn bowls.
Follow the Bias is a beautiful new triptych that distills then rearranges the hypnotic rhythms and patterns inspired by the everyday choreography of lawn bowls. Located in the sub tropical, east coast region of Australia.
Shift your expectations with a new multi-channel video work from Gold Coast-based Gogi Dance Collective, exploring the hypnotic rhythms and patterns inspired by the everyday choreography of lawn bowls.
Gogi’s unexpected, immersive performances embolden audiences to explore their local spaces and connect with each other. With a combined 35 years of local and international dance practice, Alicia Harvie, Ashleigh White and Viviane Frehner specialise in customised site-specific dance experiences. Key collaborators on Follow the Bias include award-winning film-maker Samuel James, composer Guy Webster and BLEACH* Artistic Director, Rosie Dennis. Commissioned by BLEACH* Festival.
MENGI
BENNI HEMM HEMM
Helgi Örn Pétursson and others.
A mountain range on the horizon separates the cloudy sky from the dusty desert soil of the El Mirage Dry Lake, with the sounds of a distant roar. In the long shot, the gaze shows a detail of the Californian Mojave landscape, whose static panorama forms the referential and also material background for Circular Inscription. In a performative tracing of a vehicle´s path, Lukas Marxt initiates and documents in his cinematic work, the process of inscription that gives the film its title: a seemingly unmanned white car rolls into the image and begins to spin in eccentric rounds in the middle of the dried out lake. The vehicle draws its circles uniformly, from inside to outside, the squealing of the tires continuously rising. In doing so, the tire tracks furrow spiral-shaped in the desert surface, leaving behind marks in the soil of this culturally imbued landscape – a favorite shooting site for Hollywood films and advertisements, a popular venue for car races and their media exploitation, a site tightly bound to the art-historical movement, Land Art.
international piano day
Miro Kepinski, Sævar Jóhansson og Eðvarð Egilsson
International Piano day with Miro Kepinski, Sævar Jóhansson and Eðvarð Egilsson with
video art from Cel Crabeels (BE) https://www.pianoday.org/
What’s a better place to celebrate a Piano Day than a mystical and mesmerizing
Iceland? The founder of this sophisticated day – Nils Frahm says it all:
“Why does the world need a Piano Day? For many reasons. But mostly, because it
doesn’t hurt to celebrate the piano and everything around it: performers,
composers, piano builders, tuners, movers and most important, the listener.” – Nils
Frahm “Piano Day, an annual worldwide event founded by a group of like-minded
people, takes place on the 88th day of the year – because of the number of keys
on the piano. In 2023, it’s the 29th of March.
Special concert with Agalma IMPROV Ensemble
Agalma IMPROV Ensemble
Agalma is a collective that focuses on exploration and improvisation.
Founded by Guðmundur Ari Arnalds and Ragnheiður Elísabet in 2019, they
have steadily put out experimental records for the past years with a
total of 27 releases. The ensemble for Physical Cinema Festival will be
a special collection of friends and colleagues connected with the label
coming together to put a unique and one-off concept, not to be missed!
the nordic house
Explanation and Some Clouds
Elke Dreier
In front of the azure blue sky in Rome, an astronomer explains the daily constellations.
Seven video sequences locate the constellations of the summer sky that would be visible in the night sky. Above Rome (41° 54‘ 10.021“ N), for example, there is the summer triangle, consisting of the main stars of the Swan, Eagle and Lyra, can be seen. While the space dissolves a narrative of its own emerges through gesture.
NATURE SEE YOU
Erik Bünger – 20 mín
In November 2015, at the eve of the UN climate change conference in Paris, a video was uploaded on the internet, in which Koko, a gorilla trained in the use of American Sign
Language, addresses world leaders directly. She chastises humanity and calls for immediate action to save herself and the nature she is part of. In his video essay ‘Nature See You’, Erik Bünger invites a sign language avatar to comment on Koko’s use of words. The avatar tries again and again to reformulate the impossible position which Koko finds herself in, as a spokesperson for nature: to communicate her message to us she has to use words. But in order for this message to remain true to nature she has to remain wordless.
COLD STORAGE
Thomas Freundlich and Valtteri Reikallio
Cold Storage is a short dance film that pays homage to the virtuosic physical performances and melancholy comedy of the classic silent screen. On a desolate arctic shore, a lonely ice fisherman discovers his prehistoric counterpart frozen in the sea ice, and thaws him out as his newfound soul brother. A wild all-night drinking and dancing party in the fisherman’s tent ensues, but in the harsh light of the morning he must once again confront his own loneliness and dependency. As the ice melts under the foundations of his life, he is forced to even question the reality of the space and time surrounding him.
VESTDALSSFOSS
Helgi Örn Pétursson
The ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot was given the assignment to write a description of Helgi Örn Pétursson’s video.
This is what was typed into the ChatGPT AI-engine:
A black clad man dances on a wooden platform in front of a waterfall. His dance is like an automatic writing.
And here is the reply:
It sounds like you are describing a scene that could be interpreted in different ways, but here’s one possible interpretation:
The black-clad man dancing on a wooden platform in front of a waterfall could be seen as a symbol of the human desire to connect with nature and transcend the limits of everyday life. The waterfall represents the power and beauty of nature, while the wooden platform suggests a man-made structure that is a bridge between the human world and the natural world.
The man’s dance, which you describe as “like an automatic writing,” could be seen as a spontaneous expression of his innermost feelings and thoughts. Like automatic writing, which is a technique used in spiritualism and creative writing, the man’s dance could be seen as a way of accessing the subconscious mind and allowing it to express itself freely.
The black-clad attire of the man could be seen as a symbol of mystery, power, and transformation. In many cultures, black is associated with the unknown, the hidden, and the mysterious. The man’s dance, therefore, could be seen as a ritual of transformation, in which he seeks to connect with the power of the waterfall and harness it for his own spiritual growth.
Overall, this scene could be interpreted in many different ways, depending on one’s cultural background, personal beliefs, and artistic sensibilities. But at its core, it suggests a deep yearning for connection with nature and the transcendent, and a willingness to explore the boundaries of consciousness through creative expression.
Helgi Örn Pétursson (b. 1975) works in numerous media, including video, performance, sound and drawing at the vague boundaries of visual art, music, dance and theatre.
reykjavík´s city hall - outdoor
BIRTHDAY PARTY
Óskar Gíslason – 2min
Snapshots from everyday life of children in Reykjavík from the years 1946-1952 from the Icelandic Film Archive.
BIRTHDAY PARTY 1947 2.00 MIN. From the film Reykjavík vorra daga by Óskar Gíslason.
Little Oscar blows out the candles and the children enjoy cake and hot chocolate. The reel is from the family archive of photographer and filmmaker Óskar Gíslason.
CHILDREN DANCING AROUND BLUE LIGHTS
Óskar Gíslason – 2:08 min
Snapshots from everyday life of children in Reykjavík from the years 1946-1952 from the Icelandic Film Archive.
LIGHT BATHS AND BUBBLES 1946 2.08 MIN. From the film Reykjavík vorra daga by Óskar Gíslason.
In the middle of the last century, attention was paid to children’s public health with regular medical examinations, vaccinations and by sending groups of schoolchildren to bathe in UV light.
animals and children
Hannes Pálsson – 1:50 min
Snapshots from everyday life of children in Reykjavík from the years 1946-1952 from the Icelandic Film Archive.
ANIMALS AND CHILDREN IN LAUGARDALUR 1952, 1.50 MIN. Reel by Hannes Pálsson.
In the middle of the last century, there were still farms and fields in Reykjavík where children could interact with farm animals in the city. Gees and sheep are seen taking care of their young.
reykjavík´s city hall - indoor
astrology of a friday
Teresa Cos – 11:11 min
The film was shot in the General Assembly Room of the Province of Limburg’s Government Building, where on the 7th of February 1992 the signing ceremony of the Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) took place. Whilst the lights of the eighteen pointed star ceiling perform a choreography that goes in and out of sync with the soundtrack, as it grows from a quiet voice whispering the anthem of Europe to an orchestra of sounds birthing the Union, we hear a non-European voice reading the preamble of the Treaty. The clock-wise and anti clock-wise movement of the ceiling and the psychedelic tones of the music hold the tension of something that could simultaneously be the memory of a past as well as a vision of the future.
topologic
Cel Crabeels – 10 min
We see a man in a three-piece suit standing against an equally grey background. Everything exudes the pedestrian, to such an extent that it looks as if there is nothing to be seen. But then the man begins to make rather extraordinary movements and even later it becomes clear that he is attempting to take off the waistcoat without taking off his jacket. After a long struggle he eventually succeeds in doing this marvelously by applying the same agility that women come up with when they want to take of their bra without having to take of all of their clothes.
slave unit
Cel Crabeels – 6:10 min
’Slave unit’ is a notion which indicates the status of network equipment. In photography it denotes the power of flash installations; a distinction is always made between dominant and subjected. In the video by Cel Crabeels the idea is applied to a setting with two dancers, a director, the camera, video equipment, the stage and the audience. The work constitutes a cross-over between a dance performance, a photoscope and a video installation.