Delving into Immagetic Immanence: The Cinema of Stan Brakhage

Curator: Florencia Incarbone

How to approach the evanescent and changing qualities that populate the images of Brakhage’s cinematography?
His cinema proposes a rupture with the narrative tradition; it invites us to inhabit the exceptionality of perception in its most radical qualities by moving away from the references that give access to interpretative codes.
It is by thinking of his cinema as an event that breaks and disarms the ordinary, that we find its most radical singularity; beyond the subjective will, the material forces are erected as a compound of sensation. For this reason, we move away from his perceptive personal theories, historical classifications, and traditional academic interpretations. This is how the mythical figure of the family man who lived in the mountains recording the most intimate aspects of his life, or the struggle with his immediate environment, is blurred.
The immanent coexistence with matter and light, and the relationship of constant exchange with the environment make it possible for perceptions and affections to emerge beyond human habit.
The ultimate provocation is perhaps that which invites us to place ourselves no longer as the center from which the universe is ordered, but as part of a constantly transforming whole in which we find ourselves endlessly pulled hither and thither. In this unavoidable flexibility, we can discover visual, sensory, and temporal regimes that delve into an impersonal consciousness.

Infinite thanks to Marilyn Brakhage without whom this would not have been possible.

The program will be screened at Salt Beyoğlu and Hope Alcazar.

23-27 November 2022

PART 1
Dog Star Man (Prelude, 1961: 16mm; Part I, 1962: 16mm; Part II, 1963: 16mm; Part III, 1964: 16mm; Part IV, 1964: 16mm

PART 2
Cat’s Cradle, 1959 (16mm)
Burial Path, 1978 (Super 8mm)
The Domain of the Moment, 1977 (16mm)
Eye Myth, 1967 (35mm)
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1981 (16mm)
Mothlight, 1963 (16mm)
The Dante Quartet, 1987 (35mm)
Comingled containers, 1996 (16mm)
Black Ice, 1994 (16mm)
Stellar, 1993 (16mm)
Chinese Series, 2003 (35mm)

Visual: @vanessa_ponte