Impakt screening of CRUDE ECONOMY at rum46 in Denmark

Upcoming 4th of December the Danish art organization rum46 in Aarhus will screen an Impakt program that consists of works from “Crude Economy”, a film series that was curated by Florian Wüst for the Capitalism Catch-22 program of the Impakt Festival 2013.

rum46 started as a non-profit exhibition space for contemporary art in 1995 – initiated by students from the Jutland Academy of Fine Arts in Aarhus, Denmark. Today it is run by 3 members with backgrounds from Det Jyske Kunstakademi, Rietveld Art Akademi in Amsterdam, Art History/Århus University. As an artist-curator collective rum46´s curatorial practice is today characterized through the key words socio-political and exchange.

The the seven parts screening program Crude Economy that was presented in 2013 in Utrecht revolved around the social and economic transformations in the 20th and early 21st century. The selected films – ranging from experimental cinema and video art to documentary, industrial and educational films – look at the processes of industrialization and modernization, with a special focus on the reconstruction of Western Europe after World War II. The media campaigns that accompanied the American Marshall Plan not only presented the success of the extensive aid programme, but promoted the increase in productivity and trade as prerequisites for growth and prosperity for all.

The selection presented at Aarhus is made by the curators of rum46. It offers a personal cross-cut from the screening program that was presented in 2013 in Utrecht:

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The Shutdown
Adam Stafford, GB 2009, 10:00 min
Based on a collaboration with Scottish scriptwriter Alan Bissett, The Shutdown recalls the experience of growing up next to Grangemouth Refinery: A mesmerizing portrait of the impact of the gigantic petrochemical complex on daily life in its vicinity.

Lobbyists
Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, NL 2009, 19:00 min
In this video Castro and Ólafsson portray the activity of lobbyists in Brussels and Strasbourg. An article by the British reporter Tamasin Cave, performed as a song, is juxtaposed with on-site observations and interviews with lobbyist organizations and civilian “watchdog“ groups.

Free To Choose, Vol. 1 – The Power of the Market: The Pencil
Milton Friedman, US 1980, 2:20 min
In his PBS television series Free To Choose, American economist and “father of neo-liberalism”, Milton Friedman, explains the principles of free market economy to a broad audience. The story of the pencil stands out as especially easy to comprehend.

Hands
Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke, US 1934, 4:00 min
This short film dramatizes the greater economic value of hands put to work by the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency that employed millions of peopleto carry out public works projects. A series of hands in close-up first represents inactivity, then turns to labour and the handling of money.

David Harvey: The Crises of Capitalism
RSA Animate, GB 2011, 11:00 min
The RSA Animate series was conceived as a way of illustrating and sharing the thought-provoking ideas from the RSA’s public events programme. In The Crises of Capitalism, radical anthropologist David Harvey claims a new social order beyond capitalism.

The Shoemaker and the Hatter
John Halas & Joy Batchelor, GB 1950, 16:00 min
Produced for promoting the Marshall Plan, this prizewinning cartoon shows two traders arguing about how best to recover their livelihoods after the war. The hatter believes in producing few hats at a high price. The shoemaker wants to lower costs through mass production and make his profit through export and free trade.

Date: 4 December 2014

Website rum 46: www.rum46.dk