Held from 29.4.–7.5. in Tokyo, this year’s edition of Image Forum Festival features Finnish experimental cinema.
The first weekend of the festival includes a live cinema performance by Sami van Ingen on Sunday, April 30 at 18:45 in the Image Forum Theatre.
Sami van Ingen’s live cinema performance “Conceptión” combines found footage and deconstructed elements of film projection, and live micro camera feed. The performance is a self-reflective and poetic investigation of the boundless meta archive of cinema.
Sami van Ingen is a veteran in experimental Finnish film. He has worked as artist, lecturer and curator since the late 1980s. Van Ingen finished his doctoral studies in the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2012. He often uses found footage in his works. His works have been seen in many national and international exhibitions and festivals over the years, including Tbilisi Triennial (2012), Kunsthalle Helsinki (2005) and Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, Finland (2002).
In addition to van Ingen’s live cinema performance, the festival programme includes ten underground short films by Pasi “Sleeping” Myllymäki. The films will also be screened in Kyoto, Fukuoka and Nagoya during May and June.
The films are:
UFO in the Water (1979, 02:47)
Five Holes on Celluloid (1980, 02:05)
Andalusian Doghouse (1980, 01:36)
Gesture (1981, 02:42)
How a Mysterious Hitchhiker Picks up Three Stones (1979, 01:09)
The Forssa Syndrome (1982, 01:40)
Drive Around the World (1981, 91:40)
The Apple (1976, 01:32)
Sleeping (1979, 01:42)
Asphalt Ballet (1980, 00:51)
Pasi “Sleeping” Myllymäki is a Finnish filmmaker known for his alternative short films in the punk and underground scenes. Myllymäki graduated as a graphic designer from the Lahti Institute of Fine Arts and Design in 1976. Inspired by the DIY mentality of punk, he began making his own Super 8 shorts with the amateur cinematographer Risto Laakkonen. Between 1976–85 they produced nearly 50 short films. Between 1979–82, Myllymäki published a fanzine called “Maanalainen kaitaelokuva” (Underground DIY Cinema). The published articles were frenzied rants against the conservative values of 8 mm enthusiasts and manifestos that heralded a “new wave culture”. His short films are included in the “Mirrored” exhibition in the Nordic Pavilion of the Venice Biennale 2017.
Prior to this collaboration, the artistic director of Image Forum Festival, Mr. Koyo Yamashita, visited AV-arkki in February and gave a lecture on Japanese experimental cinema in the Academy of Fine Arts. This visit was enabled by the Finland-Asia Exchange Programme, realised with Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP) and Frame Contemporary Art Finland and funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Image Forum Festival, Tokyo, Japan, 29.4.–7.5.2017
More information: Image Forum Festival