Travelling with Richard Demarco - a homage to the artist as an explorer
In 2007 we had the opportunity to accompany Richard Demarco on a journey through two of his favourite European Countries - Poland and Romania, visiting seven cities in seven days - Warsaw, Wroclaw, Krakow, Lodz, Bucharest and Sibiu. Richard Demarco is celebrated in these countries for his long support of their artistic cultural life, going back over 40 years. During these journeys, we filmed 38 hours of encounters between over 130 different people - many of the people we filmed are known to be very significant people in the cultural life of their country, others perhaps equally significant, but unknown.
Romania - 4 screen shots (click
for large version)
The work, 'contact rushes' celebrates this sense of encounter - an at times disorientating cacophony of images, people and ideas, giving rise to a profoundly creative sense of engagement between people as they meet. These moving images provide a snapshot of our encounters. The work comprises 150 individual silent high definition video portraits, presented as a kind of moving image contact sheet, on four screens, each mounted upon a plinth in portrait orientation. The small unspeaking moments chosen are completely unstaged - they reflect a sense of connection or inward reflection, yet always within the context of the creative, inspired conversation that Richard Demarco seems to give such power to.
Poland - 4 screen shots (click
for large version)
This work is presented at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery as part of 'Demarco's Festival', a celebration of his life and commitment to The Edinburgh International Festival.
The work was supported by The Demarco European Art Foundation, the National Centre for Culture of Poland, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, the Romanian Cultural Institues in London and Bucharest, the Russell Trust and the National Galleries of Scotland.
Quicktime video clips from 'contact rushes':
Poland screen 1 (3m19s loop - silent) - 7.1MB
Poland screen 2 (3m7s loop - silent) - 5.2 MB
Romania screen 3 (3m 46s loop - silent) - 8 MB
Romania screen 4 (4m 26s loop - silent) - 8.6 MB
You will need Quicktime 7 to view these movies. It is a free download. To save the movies, ctrl+click (Mac) or right click (Windows) over the text link and select 'save target as' (Windows) or 'download linked file' (Mac).
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All text and images © hamilton & ashrowan 2007
