Thursday, August 18, 2011

Rax Rinnekangas: Face to Face (photo cinema exhibition)

Rax Rinnekangas: Face to Face. FI © 2011 Bad Taste, Ltd. P+D+SC: Rax Rinnekangas. S+ED: Jari Innanen. Photo cinema exhibition. 50 min. Finnish / Swedish intertitles. Helsinki Festival / The Amos Anderson Art Museum, 19.8.–31.10.2011, Helsinki. Opening, 18 Aug 2011.

The official presentation: "Film director, photographer and author Rax Rinnekangas' exhibition opens to the public on 19 August at the Amos Anderson Art Museum. Face to Face is a Photo Cinema installation that explores the Western concept of time and the relationship between Mother Europe and her son America."

"After decades of moving between different cultures, Rax Rinnekangas has come to understand that the carbon footprints of the migratory wave from Europe to America can be detected in almost everything this so-called white America – The United States a.k.a. The Good Bad Son – produces in its entertainment industry and politics. Rinnekangas regards America as an "oedipal bonus family made up of descendants of Europeans in ‘another Promised Land', which was unlawfully and forcibly taken from its native people. This original sin has left an indelible mark on the subconscious of the White Man, which is why the Doomsday theme is a key element of American culture. The modern concept of time manipulates man into 24-hour spending and supports this obsession". According to Rax Rinnekangas, immigrants from Mother Europe are aware of the homelessness of their souls, which is why The Good Bad Son wants to cure this homelessness by turning domestic policy into foreign policy."

"Rinnekangas' Photo Cinema installation is an interpretation of the mechanisms at play that result in Europe and the United States facing each other in perpetuum, entranced by a concept of time that accelerates spending. The imagery consists of a series of realistically depicted people photographed from behind. The photographs – set in different cultures from the Urals to the Atlantic, from Mexico via the United States to Canada – tie in with an almost dream-like narrative."

"The 50-minute film will be screened non-stop on the sixth floor of the museum. Editing and sound editing by Jari Innanen. Face to Face is a co-production of AVEK / Heidi Tikka and the Amos Anderson Art Museum."

"The exhibition is part of a broader presentation of Rax Rinnekangas' oeuvre "Short Shadow, Long Journey – The Universe of Rax Rinnekangas" on view during the Helsinki Festival. The Face to Face-exhibition kicks off the Rax Rinnekangas-series, which consists of ten films and two exhibitions. The series will also be on view in the Ateneum Hall, the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Laterna Magica and Bio Rex during the Helsinki Festival."

A critical essay on the Western culture realized mostly via photographs with moving image footage inserts (the silhouette of a swimmer seen from below). A global vision which is part of an ambitious whole. It will take time to digest this.

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