Just a little work and working:
Phill Niblock retrospective in Lausanne CH - the exhibition will be realised in partnership between Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne - http://www.circuit.li/ ) and the Musée de l’Elysée (the national museum devoted to photography - http://www.elysee.ch/ ), Mathieu Copeland, curator; January 29 until May 12, 2013
And, a book,
Phill Niblock Working Title 2012 édition bilingue (français / anglais) à paraître Un panorama des activités de l'artiste multimédia et compositeur new-yorkais depuis les années 1960, à travers des essais de musicologues, critiques et historiens de l'art, de nombreuses illustrations, des partitions et 4 films sur DVD.
A collection edited by Yvan Etienne http://www.lespressesdureel.com/ http://www.lespressesdureel.com/collection_serie.php?id=28&menu=1
CIRCUIT
centre d’art contemporain
9, av. de Montchoisi, accès quai Jurigoz case postale 303, CH - 1001 Lausanne +41 21 601 41 70 – contact@circuit.li – www.circuit.li
Nothin’ but Working
Phill Niblock, une rétrospective
une exposition de Mathieu Copeland présentée conjointement à Circuit, centre d’art contemporain et au Musée de l’Elysée
vernissage le mardi 29 janvier à 18h00
exposition du 30 janvier 2013 au 12 mai 2013 je-ve-sa de 14h00 à 18h00 et sur rendez-vous
Musée de l’Elysée 18, av. de l’Elysée CH-1006 Lausanne Tél. +41 21 316 99 11 – www.elysee.ch ma-di de 11h à 18h
From 30 January to 12 May 2013
Exposition du 30 janvier 2013 au 12 mai 2013
Contents
6 Exposition à venir
Presentation of the retroeive 3
The exhibition at Circuit 4
Dates & series and exhibition aces 5
Photographies de presse 7
Images available for the press 6 Praical information 7
Informations pratiques 9
Conta presse
Julie Maillard +41 ( 0 ) 21 316 99 27 julie.maillard@vd.ch
Press Conference
Tuesday 29 January 2013 at 10am
Opening
Tuesday 29 January 2013 at 6pm
Press Conta
Julie Maillard +41 ( 0 ) 21 316 99 27 julie.maillard@vd.ch
Press conta Circuit
François Kohler +41 (0) 21 601 41 70 conta@circuit.li
Upon a proposal by the Contemporary Art Center Circuit, the exhibition Nothin’ but Working – Phill Niblock, a Retroeive is presented simultaneously at the Musée de l’Elysée and Circuit.
Nothin’ but Working Phill Niblock, a Retroeive From 30 January to 12 May 2013
Phill Niblock has produced, for over more than fiy years, a multidisciplinary work. His “Intermedia Art” features a combination of minimali music, conceptual art, ruural cinema, syematic or even political art, and rives to transform our perception and experience of time.
Upon a proposal by Circuit, the photographs, films, inallations and all his recorded music are brought together for the fir time in a retroeive exhibition dedicated to Phill Niblock’s entire artiic endeavour. This exhibition by Mathieu Copeland is presented simultaneously at the Contemporary Art Center Circuit and at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne.
Admiedly one of the greate experimental composers of our time, Phill Niblock initiates his career as a photographer and film direor. Born in 1933 in Indianapolis, a jazz acionado, he seles in New York in 1958. Niblock arts photography in 1960, ecializing in portraits of jazz musicians such as Charles Mingus, Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, whom he frequently follows to recording sessions and concerts. In the mid-60s, he shis from photography to film, and encouraged by Elaine Summers, choreo- grapher and founder of the Experimental Intermedia, he arts realising films for dancers and choreographers at the Judson Church Theatre, including Yvonne Rainer and Meredith Monk. From 1968 on, Niblock focuses on music and composes his fir pieces, which - according to the arti - should be liened to at loud volume in order to explore their overtones.
Since the mid-60s, his analogue photographic work explores New York’s architeure and urban planning. The sequencing and layout of his images oer a mapping of the location and obje photographed, such as the abandoned buildings of Welfare Island (today Roosevelt Island) in 1966, the areas fallen into disuse in the South Bronx in 1979, or the facades of SoHo Broadway diri in 1988. Starting in 1966, Niblock engages in a refleion about the projeion of moving images through a series of films and slides- hows. Produced between 1966 and 1969, Six Films, a series of short films with sound realized with 16 mm film, heralds his experimental method through portraits of artis and musicians such as Sun Ra and Max Neuhaus.
Starting in 1968, the arti begins experimenting a combination of his visual produions with his musical scores in order to create architeural and environmental compositions with sound. Recreated by the arti at the Musée de l’Elysée for the fir time since its la presentation in 1972, the Environments series extras through images the reality of dierent surroundings,
all the while generating a dense and intense temporary environ- ment of projeed images, music and movements throughout the museum’s ace.
From the series Buildings along SoHo Broadway, 1988 From the series Underground Gallery Exhibition, 1966 © Phill Niblock
Exhibition curator
An exhibition by Mathieu Copeland, upon a proposal by the Contemporary Art Center Circuit Coordinated for the Musée de l’Elysée by Lydia Dorner
Exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center Circuit
Presented for the fir time in its entirety, re-edited and remaered by the arti for the retroeive, the series of films The Movement of People Working portray human labour in its mo elementary form. Filmed on 16mm colour film, and later on video, in locations including Peru, Mexico, Hungary, Hong Kong, the Aric, Brazil, Lesotho, Portugal, Sumatra, China and Japan – with more than
25 hours of film footage, The Movement of People Working focuses on work as a choreography of movements and geures, dignifying the mechanical yet natural repetition of labourers’ aions. Phill Niblock says of these that The Movement of People Working «came out of necessity because I was doing music performances with live dancers, and it was too cumbersome and expensive to tour with so many people. So I arted doing those films that
I could proje when performing».
These films are accompanied by the whole corpus of Niblock’s slowly evolving, harmonically minimali music, realised between 1968 and 2011. The sound level of these compositions oers a visceral experience of the long drones and inhabits the ringing, beating overtones. These scores, presented in the exhibition as photoats realized for his personal exhibition at London’s ICA
in 1982, are the composer’s mixing inruions and are not used by the musician during the performance. While moving through ace, he plays with the recorded material, sometimes creating tonalities that coincide with the recording or, on the contrary, that produce dissonances. The result is a conant movement of beat, rhythm and pulsation, as well as changing and continuous harmo- nics during his own motion through ace. The layering of tones echoes the repetitions of the workers’ aions; the evolution of the films on each screen (changing throughout the day), combined with a program that randomly plays back dierent music pieces, results in a conant renewal of forms, continuously oering an exhibition of new juxtapositions of sound and image.
The Movement of People Working oers a rong social and political comment, as highlighted by the title and represented by the closeness with the workers. In this, the series of film echoes the work of several filmmakers including Jean Luc Godard or Chris Marker who as from 1967 gave workers the cameras and informed them of cinematic techniques so that they could aually make their own films. In a fascinating turn of events, rather than doing fiional or pure documentary film, some workers formed the Groupes Medvekine and decided to film themselves working.
The Movement of People Working, 1973 - 1991 (Film ills) © Phill Niblock
Important dates and major works
1933: Birth in Indianapolis 1958: Seles in New York 1961-1964: Realizes a series of portraits of jazz musicians 1966: Presents his fir photography exhibition at the Underground Gallery, New York 1966: Realizes films for dancers and choreographers of the Judson Church Theater in New York, including Elaine Summers, Yvonne Rainer, Meredith Monk, Tina Croll, Carolee Schneemann, and Lucinda Childs 1966-1969: Six Films 1968-1971: Environments 1973-1991: The Movement of People Working 1979: Streetcorners in the South Bronx 1982: Scores Photoats 1984: Boatyards 1985: Becomes direor of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation 1985-1992: Anecdotes from Childhood 1985-1992: Light Paerns 1986-1989: China 88, 87, 86 & Japan 89 1988: Buildings along SoHo Broadway 2011: N + M and Nomis 2012: Working Title, an anthology of Phill Niblock’s work edited by Yvan Etienne, published by Presses du Réel 2012: Phill Niblock revisits the Environments
Exhibition sites
Exhibited at Circuit + Musée de l’Elysée Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée
Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée Exhibited at Circuit Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée Exhibited at Circuit
Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée
Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée Exhibited at Circuit + Musée de l’Elysée Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée
Exhibited at the Musée de l’Elysée
The following images are available for the press.
The use of these images is limited to the promotion of the exhibition presented at the Musée de l’Elysée. They mu not be altered in any way and mu mention the whole caption as well as the copyright.
To download the images:
p://84.16.80.83/web/press/Phill_Niblock
user : press password : 1006_mel_13
From the series Buildings Along SoHo Broadway, 1988 © Phill Niblock Presented at the Musée de l’Elysée
From the series Underground Gallery Exhibition, 1966 © Phill Niblock Presented at the Musée de l’Elysée
The Movement of People Working, 1973 - 1991 (Film Stills) © Phill Niblock Presented at Circuit
From the series Streetcorners in the South Bronx, 1979 © Phill Niblock Presented at the Musée de l’Elysée
Japan89, 1989 © Phill Niblock Presented at Circuit
Duke Ellington in control booth, 1962 © Phill Niblock Presented at Circuit
Practical Information
Musée de l’Elysée
18, avenue de l’Elysée CH - 1014 Lausanne T + 41 (0) 21 316 99 11 F + 41 (0) 21 316 99 12 www.elysee.ch
Opening hours
Contemporary Art Center Circuit
Access via Quai Jurigoz CH – 1001 Lausanne T + 41 (0) 21 601 41 70 F + 41 (0) 21 601 41 70 http://www.circuit.li/
Opening hours
Thu-Fri-Sa from 2 to 6pm and by appointment
Admission fee
Free admission
Tue-Sun, 11am - 6pm Closed Monday, except for bank holidays
Admission fee
Adults CHF 8.00 AVS CHF 6.00 Students / Apprentices / AC / AI CHF 4.00 Free entry for those under 16 Free entry on the first Saturday of the month
