FROM THE ARCHIVE: BEING DIGITAL

  • Spintex 2
  • Conversations with Boxing Gloves
  • Spintex
  • OEG-Pedestrian
  • Weightless_TS
  • Forsythe

BEING DIGITAL: Everything is digital, nothing is digital. “Like air and drinking water, being digital will be noticed only by its absence, not its presence,” Nicholas Negroponte. For over forty years, Portland Green has authored, performed, produced, directed and curated dance, performance, time-based media and contemporary visual art works with a focus on performance and technologies. Since 2003 Portland has also engaged in action research, analysis and writing around the economies and infrastructures that underpin cross-disciplinary practice. The outcomes from this action research have been used in the company commissions and shared more widely through publications, speaking engagements and a study collection. Pictured above are some highlights from exhibitions and works that Portland or her company have commissioned, produced or curated in the last decade that speak to “BEING DIGITAL”. SOON you will be able to explore the comprehensive digital archive of films, performances, artworks, programs, exhibitions, publications, photographs and productions directed, produced or curated by Portland Green and her company, that we are currently building. You will also be able to gain access to the catalogue of an extensive collection of moving image titles from artists and filmmakers working with dance, performance and media. While you wait, feel free to continue to access the Portland Green Cultural Projects (2003-2012) website here. CREDITS: Pedestrian, 2002, OpenEnded Group; Weightless, 2007/2012, Erica Janunger; whenever on on on nohow on | airdrawing, (2004) by Peter Welz & William Forsythe. SPINTEX, 2008, Gina Czarnecki and Ulf Langheinrich; Conversation with Boxing Gloves between Chamecki and Lerner, 2009, Rosane Chamecki, Andrea Lerner with Phil Harder.

SCREEN TALK:
Spear + ScreenTalk with director Stephen Page (live from Australia)
Barbican, February, 3, 2022, 18:10

Spear

Image: Spear, 2015, Dir. Stephen Page

Portland was delighted to host an in-person Screen Talk with Director Stephen Page following the Barbican’s screening of the dance film, Spear on February 3rd as part of Homeland: Films by Australian First Nations directors. More information here: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2022/event/spear-screentalk

The Barbican also screen the documentary Firestarter about Bangarra Dance Theatre on Saturday 5 February as part of the same series. More information here: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2022/event/firestarter-the-story-of-bangarra-virtual-screentalk

Homeland: Films by Australian First Nations directors is curated by the Barbican in partnership with Screen Australia and supported by the Australian Government as part of the UK/Australia Season 2021-22.

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PUBLICATION:
Why Does Angelina Have To Die?
March, 2020
In this article published on Medium, Portland Green and Michael Carlson posit that traditionally, film has found it difficult to deal with successful women. As the American film scholar Jeanine Basinger pointed out in her seminal study A Woman’s Way, the ‘crackpot plots’ of women’s films in the golden age of Hollywood served to ‘unintentionally liberate’ the audience.
Read the full article on medium.com here: https://bit.ly/3nk6RDN


SCREENING: Jewish Britain on Film
Regent Street Cinema, London and CCA, Glasgow
17 NOV, 2019

Jewish-Britain-3-web-sjiy

Jewish Britain on Film chronicles some of the ordinary and extra-ordinary scenes of 20th Century Jewish life, from film archives across the nation. Narrated by Isy Suttie, the footage includes rare scenes of Petticoat Lane in Edwardian times; a wedding in London’s East End in 1925; the defeat of the British Union of Fascists at Cable Street; Britain’s earliest surfing film and many more surprising and tender moments in history captured on screen. Francesca Ter-Berg (Fran &Flora) provides the commissioned sound score. The film is written and edited by Jon Spira, the producers are Alex Davidson and Jon Spira, the executive producers are Mekella Bromberg and Portland Green and consultant curators are Nir Cohen and Julia Wagner.

A JW3 commission, funded by BFI and The Shoresh Charitable Trust.

Further information: https://ukjewishfilm.org/film/jewish-britain-film/


FILM COURSE: Dance/Film: Speaking Back to the Canon
Postponed
Close-Up Cinema, London
Portland Green leads a four part evening course alongside a selection of guest co-presenters: journalist and author, Michael Carlson; curator, filmmaker and writer, Helena Blaker; producer Abigail Addison and filmmaker David Roland Warwick. Through four inter-connecting sessions, the course uses film clips and presentations to explore the relationship between dance and film; from its beginnings in the cinema of the early 1900s through the classic film dance partnerships of the 1930s and 40s to its expression in experimental moving image of the present day.

Further information: http://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/


PERFORMANCE STUDY COLLECTION….

The works documented on this web site are but a fraction of our performance study collection of 1,000+ moving image titles – sub masters of dance films (screen dance), documentaries on dance, performance and the visual arts, taped broadcast arts films and performance documentation, artists’ films (video art) and much more, on multiple carrying formats – plus the playback hardware to view the titles and hundreds of books, publications, course materials and catalogues on dance, performance and media of which we are custodian. Many artists and scholars have spent time with the study collection, including dancers, dance students, choreographers, visual artists, performance artists and theatre practitioners. The late Stuart Croft spent time with the archive for his Bloomberg-commissioned artist film, Comma 39 (www.stuartcroft.com/comma39.shtml). The collection acts as a ‘conversational petri dish’[1] in which conversations and projects are grown.

GET IN TOUCH
We are continually in dialogue with festivals, museums, arts spaces, online platforms, artists, researchers and technologists about more widely sharing the collection and the research, publications, new commissions, exhibitions and screenings in dance, performance and media over the last 25 years, that it has inspired. If you’d like to have a conversation about accessing the collection, do get in touch.

[1] Neville Wakefield


CONSULTING/INTERIM MANAGEMENT/ARTIST DEVELOPMENT

Portland seeks every opportunity to share her experience in contemporary art production, artists film (video art) production, exhibition production and the development and delivery of arts initiatives with and for artists, film makers, public and commercial galleries, museums, venues, development and enterprise agencies, funders and grant makers, collectors, local and state government agencies.

She has over 20 years’ management and production experience in the arts, culture and creative industries – strategising, visioning, developing, planning, negotiating, producing and delivering projects, programmes, policy and competitive cultural bids to enhance the viability of a project, production or offer. She has worked as a consultant, a delivery partner and as part of institutional senior management teams, working within complex governance structures. Working with clients on the business planning, design and delivery of viable arts and culture projects and programmes include introducing strategic and commercial partnerships, research, visioning, strengthening governance, identifying new revenue opportunities, writing business plans, developing targeted innovative programming, writing data-driven audience development strategies and plans, reports, producing new procurement frameworks and new commissioning processes and establishing formal monitoring and evaluation processes, all of which meet the client’s institutional or programme priorities.

Significant experience with US clients has engendered a can-do, proactive service with a focus on delivering for clients against targets to deadlines and resolving challenges speedily. An advanced knowledge of contract law as it applies to intellectual property, artistic practice, cultural production, exhibition and distribution facilitates clients’ timely issuance of licence, production, distribution, acquisition and publication agreements.

She also works with individual artists, film makers and other creatives to develop their practice.

GET IN TOUCH
If you’d like to have a conversation about a project, production, piece of consultant work or interim management, contact us.


SELECTED CURATORIAL PROJECTS
FILM SCREENING
Reimerswaal-Flemish and Dutch films at the Frankfurter Buchmesse

19-23 October 2016

277,000 visitors came to the 2,300 square metre pavilion at the Frankfurter Buchmesse in which Flanders & The Netherlands showcased poetry films, short films and artists’ films. Artistic director Bart Moeyaert chose Clara Von Gool’s Reimerswaal as one of the films for the pavilion cinema. Further information about Reimerswaal is available in the film section of this site.


FILM SCREENING
GREY ZONES and DARK SPACES: NETWORKS

Thursday, April 28, 19:00 to 20:30, Nicholas Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon

The films in this screening investigate the materiality of digital media and networks, from digitally generated images to high-speed network cables, making visible the power structures and mechanisms that shape our increasingly mediated world.

This screening is part of the Grey Zones and Dark Spaces curatorial project exploring the invisible spaces of academia, bureaucracy, capitalism, and the media.

Initiated by Independent Curator Portland Green and Chantal Pontbriand, Director, MOCCA Toronto, in collaboration with Nora Razian, Head of Programs and Exhibitions, Sursock Museum.

Model_Court_2

Model Court, Resolution 978 HD
HD video, 35 minutes, 2013

Using archival footage obtained from a courtroom technician, Resolution 978 HD examines transnational spaces of justice at the intersection of media and the law. It revolves around the trial of François Bazaramba, on trial for participating in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and takes place in a virtual juridical space between Finland and Rwanda. The Finnish court has travelled 7000 kilometers to try Bazaramba in his home country, as he sits in a Helsinki jail.

Lance Wakeling, A tour of the AC-1 Transatlantic Submarine Cable
HD Video, 33 min, 2011
A first-person travelogue that takes place between the four landing points of a telecommunications cable known as Atlantic Crossing 1, which passes through New York, England, the Netherlands, and Germany. Chance encounters and associative digressions link the communications cable to political protest, global security, war, the panopticons of Jeremy Bentham and Argus, the urban history of docks and data centers, Sylt’s corrective geology, and the problem of representing global communication structures, whose scale far exceeds that of the individual.

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PRESENTATION
SHOW ME THE MONEY: The Changing Economics of Artists’ Moving Image

Friday, November 6, 2:45pm, The Whitechapel Gallery, London.

Producer and Curator Portland Green will give a presentation on the changing economics of artists’ moving image on Friday Nov 6 at 2:45pm at the symposium, Artists’ Moving Image Practice in Britain: From 1990 to today. The symposium is presented by The Whitechapel Gallery in collaboration with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network. The panel entitled Film and video on TV includes: Colin Perry, Gary Thomas, Portland Green and Jonathan Patkowski. It will be chaired by Rose Cupit, Senior Manager, Film London.

The two-day symposium on Nov 6 and 7, features lectures and panel discussions with leading specialists – artists, curators, film historians, art historians and critics – the purpose of this conference is to map the recent history of of this dynamic strand of visual culture within a British context, and to develop new scholarly research through thematic discussions and close readings of selected works and artists. Participants include Erika Balsom, George Barber, Iwona Blazwick, James Boaden, Steven Cairns, Maeve Connolly, Nina Danino, TJ Demos, Gareth Evans, Kodwo Eshun, Ed Halter, Shanay Jhaveri, Omar Kholeif, Michael Maziere, Mark Nash, Sarah Perks, Colin Perry, Michele Pierson, Gary Thomas, Jonathan Patkowski, Portland Green, Lucy Reynolds, Andrew Vallance, Mark Hallett, Laura Castagnini, Ayanna Dozier, Rachel Garfield, Diana Smith, Inga Fraser, Alessandra Ferrini, Isabelle Wallace, George Barber, Nina Danino, Lindsay Seers, Smadar Dreyfus, James Boaden, Michele Pierson, Ben Cook, Duncan Reekie and Ed Halter.

More information here: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/events/artists-moving-image-in-britain/


PRESENTATION
ART PROJECT

SMALL ACTS OF DISOBEDIENCE – CREATIVE TIME SUMMIT: The Curriculum at la Biennale di Venezia
Monday, August 10, 7pm, Serra dei Giardini, 1254, Castello, Venezia, VE 30122, Italy.

Small Acts of Disobedience, (S.A.D) investigates the possibilities left when the margins for freedom seem to be thinning.” Chantal Pontbriand

Images: Short Cut Leuven, 2010, Stijn Van Dorpe. Presentation, August 10, Serra dei Giardini, Venezia. Italy by Sherry Dobbin

The 2015 Creative Time Summit: The Curriculum at la Biennale di Venezia took place within the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor. On opening night, August 10, at the Serra Dei Giardini, Sherry Dobbin, presented our ongoing collaborative project, Small Acts of Disobedience. S.A.D is an ever-growing archive which collects small, discreet, performative actions, and non actions, realized by artists and citizens from different communities, as a response to the inequities, absurdities and abuse of historical bye-laws, demands, constitutions and commands of government as they impact their specific local communities and spaces. Each action, places the body in a different public space; it is a form of local or personal empowerment, cultural disruption and a form of civil disobedience. It is a pedagogy of action. Since 2009, the annual Creative Time Summit has operated as a convening, a discussion, and a platform for the intersection of art and politics. The Venice Art Biennale offered a unique opportunity to gather an international, interdisciplinary community to consider how knowledge is produced and how it comes into contact with civil society. Writer and Curator Chantal Pontbriand has written about SMALL ACTS OF DISOBEDIENCE in an essay entitled To Obey or to Disobey. You can read the essay at www.portlandgreen.com/SAD

More information about the project is available here


DISTRIBUTION
RELEASE

WITH(IN)

WITH(IN), FEATURE-LENGTH ARTISTS’ FILM COMPILATION AVAILABLE ON

WITH(IN) is a two-part, short film compilation produced by Portland Green, comprising two, curated, short film programmes entitled ‘In, Around and Cornered’ and ‘Within, Against and Upon’. Each programme contains four, short films or artists’ films that each explore their themes without dialogue, in unique performative ways. more

Trailer for the 86 minute production is above.


AWARDS
CREATIVE BARKING and DAGENHAM
In February, we were awarded a Creative Barking and Dagenham Landmark Commission Research and Development Award to develop SHORT CUT, by artist Stijn Van Dorpe as part of the project Small Acts of Disobedience for future presentation in the borough. More information about the project is available here


CONSULTING

In conjunction with trainer / facilitator and Gestalt Psychotherapist / counsellor, Wanjiku Nyachae we are currently delivering business advice and mentoring services to clients of Coventry University Enterprises.


NEED HELP WITH AN ART PROJECT?
We are currently working with an international artist to develop a long form artists’ film, developing a public programme with an international arts institution, developing an essay film and Portland has just completed her research and writing on the changing economics of artists’ film and will be giving a presentation from the paper in November 2015. If you have a contemporary art project or artists’ film with which you need assistance, get in touch and see if we can help. More information about the services we can provide is here: http://www.portlandgreen.com/?page_id=486


SCREENING
STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCREENING of WEIGHTLESS

If you missed Stanford University’s screening, SCREENDANCE : A NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE, curated by Lynette Kessler, on January 22, 2014 at the Annenberg Auditorium, you can still catch the trailer which includes Erika Janunger’s film Weightless here: https://vimeo.com/83521312


SCREENING
CHARITY SCREENING of La PIROGUE, FESTIVAL de CANNES, Un Certain Regard Selection

Director, Moussa Touré, Producers: Eric Névé, Omar Sy, Adrien Maigne

Thank you to all those who supported Migrant Rights Network and PORTLAND GREEN™’s charity screening of Moussa Touré’s La Pirogue, Festival de Cannes Official Selection, Un Certain Regard on November17 at Riverside Studios, London. The screening and talk chaired by art historian and BBC and Channel 4 presenter, Gus Casely-Hayford, was nearly sold out. La Pirogue tells the story of a group of African men who leave Senegal in a pirogue captained by a local fisherman to undertake the treacherous crossing of the Atlantic to Spain where they believe better lives and prospects are waiting for them. Watch the trailer here:

The event, benefited the ongoing work of the presenters in migrant rights and film and launched ‘Our Day 2013′, a month long series of events organised by UK migrants’ rights groups culminating on 18 December, the United Nationals official International Migrants Day.


EXHIIBITION
CHOREOGRAPHIC LANGUAGE AGENT
In 2009, while managing a strategic programme of dance activity for Arts Council England, we co-funded the development phase of a software environment for exploring variations in choreographic instruction called Choreographic Language Agent produced by OpenEnded Group and Wayne McGregor|Random Dance. The project was exhibited at the Thinking with the Body Exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, London NW1 2BE in October 2013. More information about the exhibition: http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/thinking-with-the-body
More information about the commission: http://www.portlandgreen.com/PGArt/cla/ and here: http://www.openendedgroup.com/artworks/cla.html


ARCHIVE
SMALL ACTS OF DISOBEDIENCE

Anonymous artist collective ‘lisha’ have loaned their work ReSIGNation to the Small Acts of Disobedience archive for future re-presentation. Miguel Cereceda, professor of Aesthetics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and art critic for Madrid’s ABC daily newspaper, says the work “Subverts the code by urging us to think, to becoming freer, more analytical, and more ironic.” Read the full article here: www.portlandgreen.com/sad Presented at Galerie Berlin Art Projects, Berlin,DE, Instituto Paranaense de Arte, Curitiba, Brazil and Löwenpalais Stiftung Starke, Berlin, DE, the work is looking for new presentations within the S.A.D framework, particularly within the UK. More information at: www.portlandgreen.com/sad

S.A.D is a collection of discreet, performative actions, realized by artists and citizens as a response to the inequities, absurdities and abuse of laws, bye-laws, constitutions and commands of government as they impact on specific local communities and spaces. Each action is a form of civil disobedience or civil resistance. This long-term, collaborative project includes exhibition, performance, public workshops critical writing and an archive. More details about how you can participate in the project or present the project in your community can be found at www.portlandgreen.com/PGArt/sad


EXHIBITION/INTERVENTION
SMALL ACTS OF DISOBEDIENCE
Small Acts of Disobedience has contributed to the May Day launch of Citizen Artist Newspaper, through a ‘presentation’ of Mirza & Butlers’ work – Direct Speech Acts.

Artists’ project, Small Acts of Disobedience has contributed to the May Day launch of Citizen Artist Newspaper, through a ‘presentation’ of Mirza & Butlers’ work – Direct Speech Acts. This Citizen Artist special edition ‘Investigating the University’s Borders and Boundaries’ commemorates “the University’s transformation into a Border Regime”. Editor, Daphne Plessner, of Goldsmith College and the University of the Arts, has written an introduction to the special edition newspaper which also features interviews, feature articles and artworks by prominent contributors to the public debate on immigration and citizenship such as Engin Isin and Nicolas De Genova. Available to download at citizenartist.org.uk Print copies have been distributed to universities in central London and some arts organisations. If you would like to have a print copy posted to you, please email daphne@plessner.co.uk with ‘post me CA News’ in the header. Please include your name and address in the email.

Mirza & Butler’s Direct Speech Acts is available to view at http://www.mirza-butler.net/index.php?/project/direct-speech-acts/


PUBLIC ART
TIMES SQUARE MOMENT – 994,300 PEOPLE EXPERIENCED DANCE FILM – WEIGHTLESS

Erika Janunger, Weightless, 2012.
Photograph by Ka-Man Tse for the Times Square Alliance.

An estimated 994,300 people experienced the world’s largest dance space when Times Square Moment: A Digital Gallery featured a multi-screen version of the work Weightless by Swedish artist Erika Janunger. A presentation of the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts, Times Square Moment hosted a presentation of the work every night from 11:57pm to midnight during August and September. The multi-screen work was produced by Portland Green.

Video documentation is available here: http://timessquarenyc.org/times-square-arts/moment/archive/erika-janunger/index.aspx

More information about the film is available here


PUBLIC ART/PERFORMANCE
SMALL ACTS OF DISOBEDIENCE
Following its presentation at Manifesta 9 as part of the parallel events programme, artists Heath Bunting and Stijn Van Dorpe have loaned works to the SMALL ACTS OF DISOBEDIENCE (S.A.D) archive for future re-presentation.

In Van Dorpe’s ‘Short Cut Leuven’ a line of walkers, inhabitants of the Belgian city of Leuven, move along an imaginary straight line across the city centre. The route is inevitably full of barriers and the performance makes tangible the real sensitivities that living in a city entails. In the work, Orchard of Avon, Bunting has adopted the self-nominated role of’Keeper of Apple Trees’ in Avon, locating ‘feral’ apple trees growing in inaccessible, public spaces and caring for these trees. Bunting views the project as an enforcement of the rights of the “public” and of access to wilderness.

Documentation of the project as part of Manifesta 9’s parallel events programme in the city of Genk, in the region of Limburg, Belgium is available here here


 


COMMISSIONS

Presented by PORTLAND GREEN™ and the Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, ALFF (Artists’ Long Format Film) is the working abbreviation for a new partnership looking to develop and produce one ambitious single screen work which uses performance as a driver. Targeted at films in any genre; creative documentary, drama, artists’ film, cinematic essay or animation, the commission is inspired by the recent critical successes of artists’ long format films which have clearly demonstrated the range of contemporary performance styles that can be used effectively in long format films and still attract a mainstream audience. This is not a production award, rather, it is a vehicle from which to finance, produce and distribute a long form film. Following two calls for applications managed by Film London through which no film was commissioned, the call is now closed.


DANCE FILM

From 2006 to March 2012, Portland Green Cultural Projects managed a programme of work in dance on behalf of Art Council England. This strategic programme commissioned, exhibited and distributed dance work that exists outside of the theatre and its associated theoretical canons and economic models. Documentation of artists’ work on this site which has been supported through this Arts Council England funded programme is attributed accordingly.

We have concluded this strategic work and did not apply to be a part of Art Council England’s National Portfolio. This means that we have changed the way we work with artists and film makers. More information about the frameworks within which we work can be found here: http://www.portlandgreen.com/consulting-curatorial-production-services/ We continue to work in performance and dance within contemporary arts practice and film alongside our other work in contemporary art and film.

We have de-accessioned screening copies of films sent to us as part of the strategic programme we managed to a national archive. If you submitted a viewing copy of a film to us as part of the above programme and wish it returned, please contact us



AWARDS

CREATIVE SKILLSET
In 2013 we were awarded a Creative Skillset Management and Leadership Bursary.


BFI TRANSITION FUND
In 2011 we were awarded one of the first bfi Transition Fund Awards. The Transition Fund for Audience Development, funded through Lottery Funding, was set up by the BFI in order to support audience development projects facing budget cuts in funding as a result of the changes in the national and regional film funding landscape which have taken place before a new film strategy and funding priorities come into effect from April 2012. Peter Buckingham, Former Head of Distribution and Exhibition, BFI, said, “We have moved as swiftly as possible to ensure that film organisations are able to survive in this period of transition, and that audiences can continue to benefit from the important work that they do. Collectively these organisations contribute hugely to the access and promotion of film in the UK. They are incredibly valuable which is why it has been important for the BFI to help them.” The BFI logo denotes projects on this site which were supported by this award.


PORTLAND GREEN™ makes, curates, produces and distributes extraordinary and unusual contemporary visual art and media arts projects that engage with and counter the issues facing the world today. While we may have moved beyond an expectation that artists work in one, classifiable medium, our work has to date focused on ideas explored through artists’ film, socially engaged practice, creative documentary, cinematic essay, docu-drama, dance and performance on film, live performance and hybrid forms. These projects are timely and make a tangible contribution to contemporary culture, discourse, ideas and thinking. Our works are designed to reach large audiences and often emerge from collaborations with artists, thinkers, designers and institutions.

PORTLAND GREEN™ delivered strategic programmes of work for public funders in the UK for a decade, including a programme of work in dance for Arts Council England through Portland Green Cultural Projects, this strategic programme ended in 2012.

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Background Image: SOME IMPERATIVES, 2011, TIM ETCHELLS (PERFORMED BY HESTER CHILLINGWORTH) PHOTO: PHIL STARLING