Erice-Kiarostami: Correspondences

Posted by PS on August 24, 2008
Art, Books, Movies and Reviews thereof, Exhibition, Melbourne, Movies

Having watched quite a few Kiarostami films, I ended up going forĀ  Correspondences. It’s one of those exhibitions wherein audio-visual elements take center stage as museum installations; an experience that sometimes turns out to be grating and very very confusing (case in point being ‘replay christian marclay‘ a couple of months back).

However, Correspondences was a brilliantly rewarding and moving experience. Viktor Erice and Abbas Kiarostami apparently never met in person till the exhibition but they maintained a very unique rapport with each other through a sort of creative dialogue that gave birth to this particular installation. Despite being from vastly different backgrounds, these two auteurs found common ground in their visions of childhood, memory and cinema. There are some very powerful images (photographs by Kiarostami especially) and an excellent black and white short film by Erice titled, Lifeline (video link). Two very interesting pieces by Kiarostami included projections of a sleeping couple (Sleepers) onto the floor and another ten minute projection of a sleeping child.

Occasionally, you do feel like a voyeur but then again, isn’t that what cinema is essentially about?

(Cross-posted on Couch-Critics)

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3 Comments to Erice-Kiarostami: Correspondences

ArtyP
August 24, 2008

Heyyyy! Loved it too though I didn’t go all orgiastic like you did! Did you realize that you stared at that sleeping couple far too long? :) Aaaand…now you’re blushing!! :D

Ta!

bApHoMEt
August 24, 2008

(You lucky dawg!)

I just saw the video Sea-Mail (link) at the ACMI website. Amazing. That’s a beautiful way to communicate. The photographs on the website are pretty neat too. But I imagine the effect would be incredible when you are there in person seeing the installations.

prestidigitator
August 25, 2008

@ArtyP (ArtyP really?) Feel free not to tag along next time mkay? :)

@Baphomet Yep, that was part of the installation as well. I’m pretty sure you would have loved it. It’s also given me ideas on how our correspondences can be, well, more fruitful. Discussion later. :)

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