FIX09
artists: Dan Shipsides
title: T5 Field Cinema
date: Saturday 28th September & Sunday 4th October
location: Somewhere in the Mourne Mountains
T5 Field Cinema is a project that involves getting a group of people, from various backgrounds, into the back of a VW T5 transporter and driving to various locations to watch films. On Saturday the trip went to the North Coast of the province and watched a number of films on the beach. I went on the Sunday excursion to the Mourne Mountains. After an hour long drive we reached a rocky track leading up to the mountain. It was such a rough track we all had to get out of the vehicle to stop it bottoming out on the small boulders. For the last 200 yards we even had to engage in some improvised road building; filing in large dips with rocks or rolling away larger rocks to enable the van to pass. We finally set up at the foot of the mountain with a number of precipitous rock faces looming over us. Apt, considering the first films were involved rock climbing in some way. Dan showed a recent film of his, Cioch 360, made by swinging a video camera attached to a long rope around his head whist stood on the top of a mountain. The noise and the speed of the images created a feeling of vertigo in the pit of the stomach. He also showed Underdeveloped, a Northern Irish climbing video and The Coming Race (Ben Rivers); the last being grainy black and white footage of the holy pilgrimage up Croagh Parick.
The aesthetic of showing the films in this location had an amplifying effect upon the content; for someone not remotely interested in rock climbing the urge to pick up a rope and start out was powerful. It facilitated a real understanding of the challenge and satisfaction one must feel when completing a climb.
The Final film was Herzog’s Aguirre – Wrath of God. Again considering our journey up it had particular resonance. Also the clear night sky meant it was cold and to sit through the film became somewhat of an endurance feat towards the end. Perversely though, this only added to the experience which was extremely enjoyable and an informative experiment into the situational context of engaging with film and video.
For more on the T5 Field Cinema see http://www.danshipsides.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl
