The Exhibition of a Film
An exhibition for the cinema, curated by Mathieu Copeland
The Exhibition of a Film is a full-length feature conceived not as a documentation of an exhibition, but as an exhibition itself—unfolding entirely within the space and temporality of cinema. Curated by Mathieu Copeland, with dramaturgy by Tim Etchells and an original score by Susan Stenger, the work displaces the gallery into the cinema, rethinking what it means to exhibit, to look, and to listen.
Rather than a sequence of isolated short films, the contributions—visual, textual, choreographic, sonic—interweave, echo, and sometimes contradict each other. Images and sound operate independently but synchronously: artists submitted material without reference to one another; Stenger composed without seeing the film. The result is a layered, continuously re-editing experience in which the audience moves through an exhibition in time.
My contribution (Atlas – Dust of Stars) appears as a constellation of images—both invented and real—that evoke the persistence of dust, chance, and error in scientific and aesthetic systems. These images are shown with a soundtrack by Lee Ranaldo and a text by Myriam Lefkowitz.
Premiered in 2014 at the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement in Geneva, The Exhibition of a Film has since been screened at Tate Modern (London), Museo Jumex (Mexico City), ACMI (Melbourne), and elsewhere. The project was accompanied by a 208-page book by Les Presses du Réel and extended through L’Exposition d’un Film (Produits dérivés)—a series of editions and posters shown at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and CNEAI.
A hybrid between cinema, choreography, sound installation, and curatorial experiment, The Exhibition of a Film is both an exhibited film and a filmed exhibition. Its proposition: the screen as a wall, time as gallery, and projection as a collective mode of presence.
Contributing artists, performers, writers and musicians include:
Mac Adams, Chantal Akerman, Fia Backström, Darren Banks, Eva Barto, François Bovier, Olivier Castel, Philippe Decrauzat, Peter Downsbrough, Tim Etchells, Morgan Fisher, Liam Gillick, John Giorno, Lore Gablier, Philippe Grandrieux, Joanna Hogg, Isidore Isou, Christian Lebrat, Anne Marquez, Charles de Meaux, Claudia Mesch, Philippe-Alain Michaud, Meredith Monk, Charlotte Moth, Mai-Thu Perret, Lee Ranaldo, Denis Savary, Laurent Schmid, Leah Singer, Susan Stenger, Phoebe Unwin, Andrew V. Uroskie, Ben Vautier, Alan Vega, Jacques Villeglé, Lawrence Weiner, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ian White.
The Exhibition of a Film
Edited by Mathieu Copeland and Lore Gablier.
Graphic design: Nicolas Eigenheer and Jeremy Schorderet.
Published by Les Pressed du réel with the Geneva University of Art and Design.
