Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

Especially for Almost Cinema, FrictiesSalon goes XL: not one, but four artists will talk about their work. Each of them uses the cinematic medium in one way or another: Alexis Destoop found his way to film through photography, Anna Rispoli & Cristophe Meierhans are more performers than directors and director Philip Warnell’s work is interdisciplinary and includes video, installations and performances. They’ll talk about their work in an informal setting and will answer questions from the audience.

Alexis Destoop – Kairos

Video artist Alexis Destoop talks about his new project Kairos, a movie that is a cross between science fiction and a road movie. The film takes place in a world where time can be bought and sold like a drug and follows the adventures of the main character on his journey through the desert… Destoop is making the film in close collaboration with Aaron Schuster and musicians Sun O))) musicians Oren Ambarchi and Stephen O’ Malley.

scenario: Alexis Destoop / Aaron Schuster

Anna Rispoli & Christophe Meierhans – The Pitch

The Pitch is a lecture/performance which constitutes the first part of a larger project entitled Far western. Anna Rispoli and Cristophe Meierhans travelled to Sudan to film a remake of Howard Hanks’s Western film Rio Bravo. But transporting a typical Hollywood movie with John Wayne, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson to an African setting with Sudanese actors is not exactly a piece of cake. On top of that, the local government and Sudanese state television were keeping an eye on the set in case they wanted to censor certain scenes for political or religious reasons. This performance, in collaboration with sudanese filmaker Ismael Taha, shows the making of the movie, with audio, video, interviews, etc.

concept: Christophe Meierhans / Anna Rispoli
with: Ismael Taha / Anna Rispoli / Christophe Meierhans
voices of: Laurent Meierhans / Tahani Hassan Basha / Hamad El-Neel / Mahir Hassan Sayid
co-produced by: Lettera 27, Milano / Netwerk center for contemporary arts, Aalst / Vooruit, Gent

Phillip Warnell – The Girl With X-Ray Eyes

At first sight, Natasha Deminka is a Russian medical student like all the others. But Natasha claims that she has X-ray eyes, allowing her to look inside people’s bodies. Philip Warnell was intrigued by Natasha’s story and let her examine him. In his film The Girl with X-ray eyes, you see Natasha scanning his body with her eyes and diagnosing him. Warnell looks further than the paranormal and asks question about authenticity, truth, body language and the act of looking and seeing.

The soundtrack for this movie was composed on a theremin, a Russian instrument that produces sound by moving the hands around its antennas without actually touching the instrument.

Film Credits
Directed by Phillip Warnell / with – Natasha Demkina / Director of Photography – David Raedeker / Sound Composer – Vladimir Nikolaev