The J.F. Costopoulos Foundation & The Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki-State Museum of Contemporary Art
The Ministry of Culture & the 47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Present a premiere and exhibition curated by Katerina Koskina:
Eve Sussman & The Rufus Corporation
89 SECONDS AT ALCÁZAR & OTHER WORK
OPENING: Sunday 19 November 2006, 20:00, Warehouse B1, Port of Thessaloniki
Exhibition Dates: 19 November 2006 – 7 January 2007
Opening hours: 10:00-22:00 until 26/11/06, 10:00-14:00 & 18:00-22:00 until 07/01/07
&
WORLD PREMIERE of a new video
THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN
47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Premiere Screening: 13:00 Sunday 19 November 2006
Olympion Cinema Complex - Olympion 1
Subsequent screenings:
THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN
4 December 2006 – 7 January 2007
Monday-Wednesday-Friday at 15:00 & 17:00
Olympion Cinema Complex
"... they did not commit the rape out of wantonness, nor even with a desire to do mischief, but with the fixed purpose ..."
-Plutarch
The JF Costopoulos Foundation & The Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki-State Museum of Contemporary Art in collaboration with the 47th International Thessaloniki Film Festival are pleased to announce an exhibition of two works by Eve Sussman and The Rufus Corporation, (the creative company of dancers, actors, artists and musicians who make works on video) The Rape of the Sabine Women (2005) and 89 seconds at Alcõzar (2004) in the port city of Thessaloniki, Greece.
ABOUT THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN
Developed in improvisation, The Rape of the Sabine Women is a re-interpretation of the Roman myth of the Sabine women updated to the 1960s. The original story concerns the abduction of the Sabine Women by Roman men in order to ensure the future of Rome. The battle over the women that ensued and the intervention that they attempted is known as the Intervention of the Sabine Women and is illustrated in the painting of that name by Jacques-Louis David. The Rufus Corporation has re-envisioned the Romans as G-men and the Sabines as butcher’s daughters. The Rape of the Sabine Women was shot on location in Athens and Hydra in Greece and in Berlin, Germany in 2005. This work is especially significant to the JF Costopoulos Foundation, who were among the initial funders facilitating the production in Greece.
The Rape of the Sabine Women will premiere on November 19th at the Olympion Theatre presented by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, The J F Costopoulos Foundation and The Centre for Contemporary Art- Thessaloniki. Beginning December 4th, 2006 through January 7th, 2007 The Rape of the Sabine Women will be screened at the Olympion Cinema Complex, every Monday-Wednesday-Friday at 15:00 & 17:00.
THE FIVE ACTS
The film – conceived in an operatic five act structure – opens in the Pergamon Museum where the men meet a speechless soothsayer in the form of a museum guard, who is followed by a wolf (the symbol of Rome). They are delivered their fate via tour headsets that relay hypnotic electronic sounds. In the S-Bahn the men hear women’s voices but they appear as mirages – figments of a collective imagination. In Act II, the convention is completed in Tempelhof Airport, played out by the men moving in unison to the click of taps and strains of bouzouki. The third Act culminates with the men carrying out their charge, stealing women in the modern Agora – the meat market in Athens. The piece turns on Act IV where our protagonists appear living in a classic modern 60’s dream house overlooking the Aegean. The house is ‘picture perfect;’ its perfection wrenching. The inhabitants of the house begin to mistrust one another. Infidelity is implied. The men, who initially came together to steal from strangers, take from each other. The epidemic they propagated – the love triangle – turns upon them. In the final Act at the Herodion Theatre – the site of a massive chorus – the tension borne in the house erupts. A fight becomes a riot. The intervention of the women is fraught. The chaos that ensues does not end, but transforms into nothingness. The wolf returns.
He has become a wolf
But still his humanity clings to him
And suffers in him…
…His every movement possessed
So one house is destroyed.
–Ted Hughes Tales from Ovid
ABOUT 89 SECONDS AT ALCÁZAR
89 seconds at Alcõzar was the first collaboration with the founding collaborators of The Rufus Corporation. The video was inspired by the Western masterpiece ‘Las Meninas’ (Maids of Honour) painted in 1656, by the Spanish painter Diego Velasquez. It is a fluid choreography, bringing together an ensemble of visual atmosphere, performance and process. Sussman’s interpretation of the painting takes ‘Las Meninas’ as a “film still that predates photography by 200 years”. With this in mind, ’89 Seconds at Alcõzar’ is realized as a ten-minute high definition motion picture that allows the eternal moment depicted in the painting to exist as a fleeting gesture and continue as if the movement had occurred in daily life.
The Rufus Corporation actors (Nesbitt Blaisdell, Walter Sipser, Jeff Wood, Helen Pickett Annette Previti and Sofie Zamchick) and their choreographer Claudia de Serpa Soares worked in improvisations exploring how the characters might have entered the room, their underlying motives, psychological tensions and emotional content, creating an implied narrative in the piece. The costume designer Karen Young recreated the Baroque wardrobe. The composer Jonathan Bepler, developed the sound track with over 64 tracks of ambient, folied and vocal recordings, to culminate in an atmospheric score that makes the room come to life. 360° steadicam cinematography is by Sergei Franklin.
EXHIBITION DATES
- World Premiere The Rape of the Sabine Women:
November 19, 2006 13:00
Thessaloniki International Film Festival
- Installation 89 seconds at Alcõzar
November 19th 2006 – January 7th 2007
The Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki
- Berlin Premiere - The Rape of the Sabine Women:
January 25 - March 4, 2007
Hamburger Bahnhof – Berlin
- NYC Screening: The Rape of the Sabine Women
February 23 – 30, 2007
IFC Theater
THE COMPANY
The Rufus Corporation is a collaborative group of artists, dancers, actors and musicians who create videos, photographs and live events under the direction of Eve Sussman. Eve Sussman founded the company in 2003 during production of 89 seconds at Alcõzar. For The Rape of the Sabine Women, founding collaborators Nesbitt Blaisdell, Helen Pickett, Annette Previtti, Walter Sipser, Claudia de Serpa Soares, Jeff Wood, Karen Young and Sofie Zamchick traveled to Greece to begin rehearsals and were joined by Popi Alkouli-Troianou, Kostas Beveratos, Marilisa Chronea, Stergios Ioanou, Grayson Millwood, Katerina Oikonomopoulou, Rosa Prodromou, Antonis Spinoulos, Christos Syrmakezis, and Sotiris Tsakomidis to create the work in improvisation along with the film and television star, Themis Bazaka, and acclaimed vocalist Savina Yannatou. Jonathan Bepler, who also scored 89 seconds at Alcõzar, asked musicians Algis Kizys, Eric Hubel, Geoff Gersh, Craig Rodriguez, Scott Moore and Bradford Reed to accompany the group to Greece for production, where they recorded the music live on set. Photographers for the production were Benedikt Partenhiemer, Ricoh Gerbl and Bobby Neel Adams.
ACKOWLEDGMENTS
The Rape of the Sabine Women is a Rufus Corporation Production generously funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds-Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof-Berlin, The JF Costopoulos Foundation-Athens, Roebling Hall Gallery-New York, Richard Massey and Ninah & Michael Lynne. Additional co-production support has been provided by: The Nasher Museum of Art, Arario Gallery-Seoul, The New York State Council on the Arts and The Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. Corporate Sponsorship has been provided by: Panavision-London, HD Cinema, Final Frame-NYC, Ordino Casting Services-Athens, Microtek Gefell-Germany, Apple Computer Inc., DuArt Film & Video, LaCie-USA, Sony Professional Media, Dreamhire LLC, Tekserve, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company-Greece, Merc Clothing-London, Marriot Hotels-Berlin, Blackmagic Design and MAC Cosmetics. |
