Exhibition information
Melanie Manchot
Twelve
Twelve
From September 25th until November 28th, 2015, Galerie m is showing the major new multi channel video installation Twelve by Melanie Manchot (*1966 Witten/Germany, lives and works in London/GB). Twelve explores the intimate stories, rituals, repetitions and ruptures of lives spent in addiction and recovery. Inspired by the visual acuity of renowned contemporary filmmakers, the work connects and collapses individual recollections in which everyday situations, events and activities are rendered dramatic or abstract and infused with tragedy, pathos and humour.
Over the last two years Manchot has worked in dialogue with twelve people in recent recovery from substance misuse, in rehabilitation communities in Liverpool, Oxford and London. Twelve is directly informed by their personal written and oral testimonies, creative conceptions, and performances within final works. Single sequences are shot as continuous takes, referencing iconic scenes from the films of Michael Haneke, Gus Van Sant, Bela Tarr and Chantal Akerman – a ferry journey across the Mersey, a darkened room looking out on to an early morning street, a car wash, the cutting of daisies with small scissors, the obsessive cleaning of a floor – providing the framework for reflections on remembered incidents and states of mind. Twelve employs a diversity of cinematic technique and tropes adapted by Manchot to reveal the complex and non-linear nature of recovery.
While the work is made with a group of recovering addicts it ultimately poses questions about the difficulty of being in the world and of finding meaningful forms of existence – questions that might affect many of us, even if not confronted with addiction.
Melanie Manchot is a London based visual artist who works with photography, film, video and installation as part of a performative and participatory practise. Her projects often explore specific sites and public spaces in order to locate notions of individual and collective identities, investigating particular gestures and forms of movement or activities that become the marker of a group or community.
Twelve was commissioned by Portraits of Recovery and developed by Melanie Manchot working with Action on Addiction, the Ley Community and the Psychosocial Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire.
Melanie Manchot provides detailed information about the film on the special website twelve.org.uk which is meant to permanently grow in order to become a base for further research on the topic.
Over the last two years Manchot has worked in dialogue with twelve people in recent recovery from substance misuse, in rehabilitation communities in Liverpool, Oxford and London. Twelve is directly informed by their personal written and oral testimonies, creative conceptions, and performances within final works. Single sequences are shot as continuous takes, referencing iconic scenes from the films of Michael Haneke, Gus Van Sant, Bela Tarr and Chantal Akerman – a ferry journey across the Mersey, a darkened room looking out on to an early morning street, a car wash, the cutting of daisies with small scissors, the obsessive cleaning of a floor – providing the framework for reflections on remembered incidents and states of mind. Twelve employs a diversity of cinematic technique and tropes adapted by Manchot to reveal the complex and non-linear nature of recovery.
While the work is made with a group of recovering addicts it ultimately poses questions about the difficulty of being in the world and of finding meaningful forms of existence – questions that might affect many of us, even if not confronted with addiction.
Melanie Manchot is a London based visual artist who works with photography, film, video and installation as part of a performative and participatory practise. Her projects often explore specific sites and public spaces in order to locate notions of individual and collective identities, investigating particular gestures and forms of movement or activities that become the marker of a group or community.
Twelve was commissioned by Portraits of Recovery and developed by Melanie Manchot working with Action on Addiction, the Ley Community and the Psychosocial Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire.
Melanie Manchot provides detailed information about the film on the special website twelve.org.uk which is meant to permanently grow in order to become a base for further research on the topic.
Leon
Stephen D
Joyce
Stephen D + Stephen G
Stephen G (Bronson)
Robbie