Ascending/Descending
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The series of Stills made in museums exist in the space at either end of the behavioral spectrum. While in these strange constructs which "protect" and "exhibit" art, we must observe certain behavioral rules. Museum Stills explore both extremes of these behaviors, from the over-identification and even psychological breakdown that can occur in front of works of art to the practiced performance of indifference in the interstitial stairways and corners of these often-hulking institutions.

2002
Canada
3:12
Original language
No dialogue

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Serie

Museum Stills

Credits

Direction
Adad Hannah
Production
Adad Hannah

Technical information

Color
Color
Sound
No sound
Shooting format
MiniDV

Documentation

Further information

"Ascending/Descending foregrounds the museum's stairs, a dramatic architectural feature prominent in most universal survey museums. Traditionally, this part of the museum functions as a transitional, ritualistic threshold in which visitors ascend from the mundane world of commerce and expediency to the "higher," contemplative realm of art. What is fascinating about this still is its disjunctive temporality. While museumgoers stand immobilized on the stairs, in the background we glimpse real-time reflections of passing traffic and pedestrians, each oblivious to the other's circumstance."

DROBNICK, Jim and Jennifer FISHER. "Museum vivants", Adad Hannah: Video Projects. Seoul, 2006, p. 14 [http://adadhannah.com/images/uploads/press_assets/2006_10_07_Ssamzie_Catalog.pdf] (Consulted on June 10th 2011)

Keywords
Museum, immobility, tableaux vivants

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