Interview: Yvette Brackman

Technically Sweet at Participant Inc

Why is Technically Sweet being shown at Participant Inc and Anthology Film Archives in New York?

In 2006, the Danish Arts Council launched a project called DaNY Arts. The council invited artists living in Denmark to find collaborators in New York and to develop projects with them. The purpose was to find a model for establishing long-term relationships between Danish and American artists and art institutions. The idea was to try to establish a network of international artists and art institutions that could continue to grow.

Maria and I contacted Lia Gangitano, the director of Participant Inc and asked her if she was interested in working with us. We had already been discussing a project involving Antonioni and a new approach to curating in which we could define for ourselves the context in which we wanted to work and show work. We had been discussing this project with each other since 2004. Lia agreed to be a part of the project and to invite a group of artists living in New York to participate. Maria and I were responsible for inviting some artists living in Denmark.

We also contacted John Mhiripiri, the exhibitions coordinator at Anthology Film Archives, to hear if he was interested in screening the work from the show. We wanted to have a proper screening location. John agreed that Anthology Film Archives would host several screenings of the work.

Maria and I were really excited to be able to work with both Participant Inc and Anthology Film Archives because both institutions have impressive reputations for their commitment to experimental art practice. Participant Inc was established in 2001 to explore innovative approaches to the exhibition space, with a commitment to producing interdisciplinary and intergenerational shows. And Anthology Film Archives was founded in 1969 by Jerome Hill, P. Adam Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas as a museum for avant-garde film.

Technically Sweet at Participant Inc		Technically Sweet at Participant Inc

What is the Technically Sweet art project about?

Technically Sweet is the title of one of Antonioni's unrealized screenplays which was published in Italian in 1976. The film was supposed to be shot in Rome, Sardinia and the Amazon and was supposed to feature Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider in the leading roles. After all of the preparations for the film had been made, the producer refused to fund the film. Instead, Antonioni was asked to direct The Passenger by Mark Peploe with the same actors. The screenplay for Technically Sweet remains an ambiguous blueprint for a film that was never made.

For the art project Technically Sweet, Maria and I asked a group of international artists to create new work in any medium in response to Antonioni's unrealized screenplay. The artists were invited to realize their own version of Technically Sweet, and 13 new works have been produced for the show. Using the screenplay as a common source, the artists made work addressing a wide range of themes, from the relevance of Antonioni's vision today, to questions of authorship and originality, and reception and intentionality.

Founder and director of Participant Inc, Lia Gantigano		Jane Jin Kaisen at the opening		Frans Jacobi in front of his installation, collaborator Frederik Jacobi in background

All of the artists in Technically Sweet have made work specifically for the project in response to Antonioni’s unrealized screenplay. What ideas or issues are you trying to explore with Technically Sweet?

First of all, Technically Sweet is an experiment with another form for curating, a different way of putting together an art show. Maria and I were not interested in coming up with a theme and then finding works that fit that theme. Instead, we wanted to initiate a space for dialogue around a set of questions.

Furthermore, we wished to create a show where the works were truly interconnected - more connected than what you usually see in group shows. By having a mutual point of reference, the screenplay, the works refer to each other when you experience them in the space. This was also very apparent at the first screening at Anthology Film Archives; some parts of the screenplay were used several times in different projects.

Participating artist Elisabeth Subrin in forground with Barbara Pollock, Ann Chu and Lia Gangitano in background		Polish curator, Paul Bloodgood center and Ann Chu to the left
Michael Stickrod, Erin and son with friend		Theatre director, Polina Klimovitskaya with Yvette Brackman

What is your opinion of the work that the various artists have produced for Technically Sweet? Can you characterize the directions that the artists have gone in their work in response to the screenplay?

When you visit the show, you feel that the artists have accepted the idea of the project in different ways and to different degrees. I can talk about two tendencies here: some artists followed the screenplay closely, and some took it to a completely different place.

Among the artists who followed the screenplay closely were Frans Jacobi & Frederik Jacobi. They actually went to the Amazon to film the jungle scenes. Ulrik Heltoft also followed the screenplay, although he went to Uganda to film his jungle scenes. Elisabeth Subrin followed the screenplay, but had her leading actress play both the female and the male character. And Mark Orange chose to film a very short two-minute sequence of the screenplay that he set in New York instead of Sardinia. Alternatively, Maria Finn went to Sardinia to find the real locations, and used the script in Italian as a voice-over. And Lars Mathisen used the screenplay conceptually, and created a film where the narration consists of all the names of the scenes from the screenplay.

The other group of artists used the screenplay as a starting point, but developed it into something else. For example, Michel Auder and Michael Stickrod started with a quotation from Antonoini’s foreword, but then created their own bizarre personal universe. Pia Rönicke started with the script, but let it glide into a story about Elysian Park in Los Angeles. Elsebeth Jørgensen replaced Sardinia with an island outside Scotland, and made her work an investigation of that island. Laura Parnes made a two-channel video installation about the conflict between nature and society, a theme which Antonioni also deals with in the Technically Sweet screenplay. Johannes Christoffersen created an abstract installation of photographs taken inside a model by following all the movements of the camera described in Antonioni’s screenplay. John Brattin made a troublesome and funny film that recreates the jungle scenes in a completely artificial place, as he subtly explores gender issues. And finally, I made a film about the north of Russia, which is a meditation on the environmental themes in the screenplay.

Nanna Buhl watching video		Rita Lipson watching video
Opening		Opening

In the show itself, there is very little background information about Michelangelo Antonioni and his films: there is a press release and several citations from the Technically Sweet screenplay on the wall. Much more information is found in the book that accompanies the show, The Making of Technically Sweet. Is it important for the viewer to be familiar with Antonioni’s cinematic ideas in order to appreciate the show?

Maria and I were not interested in being pedagogical. There is extra information about Antonioni in the book. If people feel curious and want to know more about his cinematic ideas, the material is available to them. We did not set out to pay homage to Antonioni - that is not the purpose of the project. Instead, we find Antonioni’s approach to filmmaking useful for our curatorial investigation. His films are very visual, and he often improvises on the set. We thought that the screenplay for Technically Sweet was wide-open for interpretation and, therefore, useful in this context.

In the forward to your book The Making of Technically Sweet, you describe your working process as a ”think tank.” In making Technically Sweet, you held a seminar with Antonioni expert Henrik Uth Jensen and the Danish artists at Overgaden where there was a presentation of works in progress and a debate. This was followed by another seminar in New York with Antonioni expert Robert Haller and all of the artists. Can you tell me what effect this process has had on the final show and book?

Maria and I think that it has been very beneficial for the artists in developing their projects that they had some common ground, some shared information. It was useful for the artists to hear and see what approaches the other artists were taking in making their new work. By listening to the other artists, your own ideas often develop or become clearer. Without this process, there may have been more works that overlapped with each other. Or, conversely, there may have been less interconnectedness between the works. The seminars have probably had the biggest impact on the book, since the discussions that we had at the seminars have influenced the essays that we have written for and included in the book. But the most important effect of the seminars was that they gave us the very positive and exciting feeling that we were developing a project together.

Claus Carstensen with friend

Technically Sweet is one of twelve DaNY Arts projects funded by the Danish Arts Council in an effort to encourage long-term relationships between Danish and international artists and art institutions. Do you think Technically Sweet has succeeded in meeting this DaNY Arts objective?

Since the project has taken more than a year to develop, there has been a lot of dialogue which, of course, is helpful when you are establishing relationships. We think that we achieved our aim of creating an atmosphere where artists could develop works in a more mutual context. The seminars have given us very good opportunities to exchange ideas, and for all of the artists to get to know each other, as well as Lia Gangitano at Participant Inc and John Mhiripiri and others at Anthology Film Archives.

But Maria and I think that to really fulfill the intention of DaNY Arts, it is important to show Technically Sweet in Denmark. Danes should have a chance to see our experimental cross-cultural way of working and curating. And all of the American artists in Technically Sweet should come to Denmark for the Danish opening and for additional seminars. We think that it is an important step for further contact between Denmark and New York that the American artists get to experience the Danish artists in the environment in which they create their art.