Closed Forever is a photograph of a derelict cinema, taken last year by an artist called William Hamilton in a town called Newbridge in Ireland. Closed Forever converts Auto Italia into this derelict cinema, screening the artworks of Jesse Jones, Catalina Niculescu and Elizabeth Price. Each of the artworks passes through particular and politically charged architectural spaces, using familiar cinematic gestures to their own novel effect. The artworks are shown simultaneously alongside feature films of each artist’s choice. Closed Forever has been produced collaboratively by Auto Italia, FAT Architects and Expedition Engineering, and curated by Isobel Harbison of Scolt Head Screenings. Scolt Head Screenings was established at the Scolt Head pub in East London in early 2007, screening a range of artists’ works on film and video every week alongside their recommended feature.
In the House of Mr X by Elizabeth Price (2007)
Coventry Cathedral by Dudley Shaw Ashton (1958)
Le chant du Styrène by Alain Resnais (1958)
The Spectre and the Sphere by Jesse Jones (2008)
Zarathusthra (2008)
Fitzcarraldo by Werner Herzog (1982)
Schall und Rauch by Catalina Niculescu (2009)
Guest (2008)
Playtime by Jacques Tati (1967)
In the House of Mr X by Elizabeth Price will be shown on 18 August as a single screening only. Works and recommended features by Jesse Jones and Catalina Niculescu will be screened throughout the exhibition. Coventry Cathedral (1958) by Dudley Shaw Ashton courtesy of the BFI.
Jesse Jones [IRL] lives and works in Dublin. Recent exhibitions include, Red Thread, Tanas, Berlin; I Have Doubts, Centre for Visual Introspection, Bucharest, Romania; Ubersong, Plan 9, Bristol, UK; (all 2009); RedRua, Tallaght, Co Dublin; Nought to Sixty, ICA, London; Project Performance, Project Arts Centre, Dublin; The Spectre and the Sphere, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto; 2:MOVE, Belfast Exposed, Belfast; Art In The Life World, Ballymun, Dublin (all 2008). Upcoming exhibitions include, The 11th International Istanbul Biennial and Historians of the Presents 2, Ghost of Buildings, Blancpain Art Contemporain, Geneva (both Autumn 2009) and the Location One Fellowship 2009/2010 in New York.
Catalina Niculescu [RO/UK] lives and works in London. Recent exhibitions include: The Neutrality of this Section Is Disputed, Giatrakou 28, Remap KM, Athens, Greece; Catalina Niculescu, Riflemaker Gallery, London; After the Curtain Falls, Wolstenholme Projects, Liverpool (all 2009); Illumination, Servie Point Building, Manchester; Rehearsal Room, Form Content, London; The Nothing and the Nothingness, Louise T Blouin Institute, London, (all 2008).
Elizabeth Price [UK] lives and works in London. Recent exhibitions include, USER GROUP DISCO, Spike Island, Bristol; Sculpture Show, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (both 2009), O Fontana, MOT International, London, World Event, Kunsthalle Basel, Stange Events Permit Themselves the Luxury of Occuring, Camden Arts Centre (all 2008); At The House of Mr X, Stanley Picker Gallery, London; The Affirmation, Chelsea Arts Space, London; Local Operations, Serpentine Gallery, London (all 2007).
