Exhibition: INHABITING THE SURFACE

Former artist in residency Fanny Zaman presents her new film entitled Local (Draft Version), alongside a series of photographs from her earlier film DplusOne.

Premiered at FIDMarseille 2012, DplusOne is a portrait of a newly installed electronic trade system set in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). The camera closes in on the traders slowly observing people, interiors, comments and gestures up to the point where details start to reveal alternative layers, noise and complexity. DplusOne portrays the economic subsurface of this particular set and engenders an ambivalent image.

Local (Draft Version) is like an extension of DplusOne, except that the film is more staged and fictionalized, and focuses on another character, the local. Based on conversations with market maker Elie Ayache, the film moves from reality to fiction.

On the occasion of her exhibition, the artist will launch her new publication which includes a booklet and a dvd with the 2 films DplusOne 2012 and Local (Draft Version) 2013.

Opening Wednesday 21.08.2013, 18:00.

22.08 - 8.09.2013

WIELS

Contemporary Art Centre

Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354
1190 Brussels
T +32 (0)2 340 00 53

LOCAL (DRAFT VERSION)

LOCAL (DRAFT VERSION) was made in de context of the WIELS recidency program and presented as a videoinstallation looped in 15 min.
LOCAL (DRAFT VERSION) is like an extension of DPLUSONE, except more staged and fictionalized, and with a main focus on the principal character, the local. LOCAL (DRAFT VERSION) moves from reality to fiction and is based on earlier conversations with market maker Elie Ayache (writer of The Blank Swan, The End of Probability, 2010). The actor is a non-professional typecasted for his personality. Acting and being becomes ambiguous. Fiction moves to reality.

The video work tries to escape time and place by introducing little shifts, little twists.

The character defends his position through philosophy namely that of Deleuze and Meillassoux.

photo Dominik Daggelinckx

DplusOne "the random movement of particles suspended in a fluid

DplusOne was screened at FIDMarseille 2012

DplusOne preview 

research and presentation WIELS residency 2012

What do we observe?

The setting is the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. ECX is the current centre of control of this new installed Ethiopian market system. Ethiopia today ranks n°5 in the world list of emerging countries by producing primary physical goods (commodities).

Stories, rumours and attitudes

In Ethiopia we started a series of observations, encounters and dialogues with people connected in some way or another with the new founded ECX and the Ethiopian economy. We were looking for relations between macro statements (about a country, a population, a group) and micro experience.

The project challenges our self-awareness and our (in)capacity to critically evaluate the things we perceive.

What do we observe?

Economics.

Macro-statements and micro-reality.
If Ethiopia ranks n°5 in the world list «emerging countries forecast 2011» we have to conclude that this forecast is a primarily a macro-statement from an economical perspective. How is this condition of acceleration reflected in the country? How does this macro-statement relate to the country’s current micro-reality? A whole scaled down to snatches.

What do we observe?

#01 photo (Dominik Daggelinckx) taken at Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia December 2010

We are in the spaces of the ECX in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We see trade on the trading floor of the exchange. We see a carpeted, octagonal space with buyers in kacki and sellers in green. The images are uniform. There is action both in foreground and background. The images are both equal and in constant change.

The project drifts on an observation of details and a constant inversion between foreground and background, between subject and context.

What do we observe?

The interview:
Bharat Kulkarni, Senior manager trading operations, explains the ECX model.
It’s a didactic presentation of an economic model (a macro-model). The attention drifts towards the rhetoric of the presentation, his vocabulary, his choice of words, his accent, the speed of speech.

What do we observe?

The research has a wide scope. By observing the footage already taken, links are created to possible other topics, areas and disciplines to find interesting matches.

ONOMATOPEE
Mai 29 between 3-6 pm
Onomatopee office & projectspace
Bleekstraat 23
5611 VB Eindhoven
The Netherlands
FoAM
June 3
FoAM vzw
Koolmijnenkaai 30-34
1080 Brussels
Belgium

Screening by the WIELS artists-in-residency at Cinéma Galeries

Cinéma Galeries (Galerie de la Reine 28 Koninginnegalerij / 1000 Brussels) and WIELS launch from January 2013 onwards a monthly program of films and videos made or selected by the artists in residency in contemporary art centre.

07.02.2013 / 8pm

FANNY ZAMAN

DplusOne (2012)
31 min
D plus one is a portrait of a newly installed electronic trade system set in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), for coffee, sesame, maize and beans is in its initial stage. It is a central system set-up according to international standards (i.e. linear, rational, logical, clean and technical). The camera settles itself amongst the traders slowly observing people, interior, comments and gestures until details reveal alternative layers, noise and complexity.

Song Mountain Area, THE CENTRE DIRECTION (2010)
37 min
This Film presents a portrait of a mountain. The mountain is situated in the Chinese district Dengfeng in the centre of Henan province. The mountain base is inhabited and the surrounding area is mainly a mining district. This combination of activities, this coalition of dust and bodies, is it coincidental, collateral or merely a minor detail in the eternal realms of Chinese cosmology?