Matter and Memory; Feeling and Form
A Major Retrospective on Phil Solomon, curated by Mark McElhatten.
Phil Solomon (1954–2019) described his work with film as “archeology in reverse.” Instead of revealing the original footage, he changed its materiality, chemically altering the emulsion – of Hollywood films and home movies alike – to de-familiarize the imagery and make them visible in a new context. A cinema situated between abstraction und figuration, material and memory, which even in radical experimental forms is capable of being profoundly expressive.
After the artist’s death, the filmmaker Eve Heller founded the Phil Solomon Project along with curator Mark McElhatten. This major show of his works in Vienna owes its existence to their initiative and is divided into five programs. Three of them take us through Solomon’s work, while the other two shed light on its context: influences, affinities, associations, dialogues with contemporary film creators – as well as with those from more recent times, who are carrying on and transforming Solomon’s legacy.
The latter also includes a live Super-8 performance by Christian Farrell of silt. An initiative that draws the spotlight back to the physical dimension of cinema: filmstrips and analogue formats, light, material, body, and projection. Because it’s not merely about preserving works but about bringing images into circulation again. So that they may take on new significance in the present!
