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Joost Rekveld: The Materiality of Signals

Joost Rekveld: The Materiality of Signals

Joost Rekveld

Los Angeles Filmforum presents

Joost Rekveld: The Materiality of Signals, with the artist in person!

Including the U.S. premiere of Rekveld’s newest film, #67 (2017)!

At the Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

(Note: An equally crucial but completely different program of Joost Rekveld’s 16mm and 35mm work will be presented on Monday, March 13 at 8:30pm at REDCAT!)

Los Angeles Filmforum is thrilled to welcome one of the world’s contemporary masters of alchemical abstraction, Joost Rekveld, in a rare visit from Amsterdam.    

Since the early 1990s, visionary artist Joost Rekveld has been exploring the inner depths and outer reaches of optical expression at the nexus of technology and natural phenomena, producing a body of astonishing works of mesmerizing abstraction.  Rekveld's films combine a remarkable ingenuity and facility with the image-making capabilities of various machines (many of his own design) with his radically inventive theories and approaches to form, motion, and perception.  The result has been a startlingly diverse, ever-expanding body of work marked by formal rigor, breathtaking imagery, and a rich, expressive audiovisual poetry.

Tonight’s program comprises four films spanning twenty years of Rekveld’s output, and includes works ranging from colorful and kinetic visual abundance to monochrome electronic image worlds of pure energy and noise, working through various processes, refractions, variations, and reductions along the way.  The evening begins with the U.S. premiere of Rekveld’s newest piece, the electromagnetic Vasulka homage #67 (2017), and continues with the evanescent light wave study of #23.2 Book of Mirrors (2002), the rarely screened formalist hand-painted film #7 (1996), and concludes with the mesmerizing cellular organicism of #43.6 (2013).  - Mark Toscano

Joost Rekveld’s programs and visit are made possible with the generous support of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.  Many thanks also to Steve Anker, Bérénice Reynaud, and Andrew Kim of Film at REDCAT for their collaboration.  Program curated by Mark Toscano.

Joost Rekveld’s website: http://www.joostrekveld.net/

Introduction to the life and work of Joost Rekveld, by Simona Monizza & Ruth Sweeney, Eye Filmmuseum:

https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/introduction-to-the-life-and-work-of-joost-rekveld

Tickets: $10 general; $6 for students/seniors; free for Filmforum members. Available in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2896863 or at the door.

For more information: www.lafilmforum.org or 323-377-7238

total running time: 71m

Joost Rekveld (b. 1970) is an artist who is motivated by the question of what we can learn from a dialogue with machines. In his work, he explores the sensory consequences of systems of his own design, often inspired by forgotten corners in the history of science and technology.

His abstract films have been shown world-wide in a wide range of festivals and venues for experimental film, animation or other kinds of moving image. Most of his recent films had their premieres at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and he has had retrospectives at the Barbican in London and the Ann Arbor film festival amongst others. Individual films have been screened at hundreds of venues, including the ICA and the Tate Modern in London, The Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. His film #11, Marey <-> Moire was the first Dutch film to be ever shown at the Sundance Film Festival.

He has realized several installations and was involved in many collaborative projects involving composers, music ensembles, theatre companies, dance companies and artist’s labs. These included dance company Emio Greco | PC (Amsterdam / Marseille), music theatre ensemble De Veenfabriek (Leiden), contemporary music ensembles such as ASKO / Schonberg (Amsterdam) and ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), Opera North (Leeds) and The Royal Opera (London) and electronic art and music laboratories such as IRCAM (Paris), STEIM (Amsterdam) and the V2 Institute for Unstable Media (Rotterdam).

67 02 smaller

#67

#67

2017, DCP, b/w, sound, 16 min.  U.S. premiere!

mirrors4big

#23.2 Book of Mirrors

#23.2 Book of Mirrors

2002, 35mm, color, sound, 12 min.

film7p1big

#7

#7

1996, 16mm, color, silent, 32 min.

43 601 smaller

#43.6

#43.6

2013, DCP, color, sound, 11 min.