Exhibition, Films, Talks & Events

Cinema Remake

Art & Film

23 March — 1 June 2014

Cinema Remake revealed how the phenomenon of the remake has produced exceptional results, both within cinema and on the interface between film and visual art.

From 23 March to 1 June 2014, the exhibition Cinema Remake – Art & Film at Eye showed the work of filmmakers and artists who use iconic feature films as a basis with which to create something radically new.

As a sequel to Eye’s successful opening exhibition, Found Footage – Cinema Exposed, which focused on the use of existing footage by artists and filmmakers, Eye presented the exhibition Cinema Remake – Art & Film.

Watch the exhibition trailer:

Something radically new

The remake is a familiar and frequent phenomenon in the world of cinema. Hollywood in particular often relies on existing films that were either trendsetters or made a lot of money in their day or country of origin. Besides popularity and profitability, there are also artistic considerations for remaking existing films and using them as a basis to create something radically new. The exhibition Cinema Remake revealed how the phenomenon of the remake has yielded exceptional results, both within cinema and on the interface between film and visual art.

Art & film

Many artists and filmmakers seize upon existing, often iconic films in order to unravel their cinematic language, to make the viewer aware of the codes and unwritten laws of film, and to tell their own story. A good example of this is the work Recalling Frames from 2010 by David Maljković, in which he takes the famous Orson Welles film The Trial (1962) (based on Kafka’s Der Process (1925)) as his starting point, to ultimately arrive at a new and entirely original installation. Maljković uses stills from the film in combination with recent photos of the modernist building in Zagreb where parts of the original film were shot, in addition to a 16mm projection and the soundtrack of the film.

Another example is a work by the New York artist Cory Arcangel, in which he reinterprets the film Colors (1988) by Dennis Hopper as a mesmerizing, abstract play of colours. In various film, photo, slide and video installations, Cinema Remake revealed how cinema continues to serve as a starting point from which to create new and meaningful artworks, time and time again.

Films, talks & more

The auditoria showed feature films in which the source material is moulded into a completely autonomous film work, which compare very favourably with their originals. Such as Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964), with which he effectively launched the genre of the spaghetti western, based on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961).

In addition, there was also room in the programme for the films that are reconstructed and given new meaning by the artists in the exhibition, such as Colors (1988) directed by Dennis Hopper and The Trial (1962) by Orson Welles.

The theme of the Cinema Concert on 25 May was one of the most remade films of all time: Phantom of the Opera from 1925. And the monthly editions of the series Cinema Egzotik with Martin Koolhoven and Ronald Simons also focused on the remake, with a double bill of the western High Noon (1952) and its science fiction remake Outland (1981) on 21 March. On 16 May, Koolhoven and Simons presented compelling evidence that David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997) should be regarded as a remake of the crime classic Kiss Me Deadly (1955) by Robert Aldrich. The more literal remake was also given a podium: the evening of 10 May was devoted to one of cinema’s most famous remakes, with a double bill of Scarface (1932 and 1983).

credits

Director of Exhibitions / curator

Jaap Guldemond

Associate curator

Marente Bloemheuvel

Project managers

Sanne Baar, Claartje Opdam

Graphic design

Joseph Plateau

Technical production

Indyvideo

Installation

Landstra & De Vries

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