Forum Expanded 2015:
Unused Possibilities

UZ: Anselm Franke remembered a quote from Jean-Luc Godard which we used as our working title, but we didn't know for a long time whether or not Godard actually said it. Then we discovered that he really did, in relation to the Nouvelle Vague: “What we thought was the opening of new opportunities, turned out to be the sound of a door, closing forever.”

Which closed doors are you tracing in the programme?

SSS: An example: recently we've got involved in some archive projects. In Egypt in the 1960s and '70s there were some films which kindled the idea of an independent, experimental cinema – but nothing really came of it because things went a different way. When you view such a find today, it seems like a promise from the past. The shutting of a door can have reverberations and the narrative with which you've lived for all the intervening years is held up for inspection – and then the images of the past probably tell of a new present. Not a re-interpretation of it but actually a new present. The beginning of the revolution triggered lots of hopes and Utopian dreams. Where did they come from and where have they gone? What actually happened in that moment? Beyond linearity and causal connections there's a huge scope for possible stories and perspectives. We're looking at moments in which new historical narratives, new aesthetic concepts, new images came into being, often sparked by very real experiences.

Of course, we also have to talk about the tenth anniversary of Forum Expanded. How has the media landscape changed since 2006?

SSS: A lot has changed since 2006. The opening of our first Forum Expanded in 2006 at KW Institute for Contemporary Art was already very well attended, but something bothered me about it. I knew the KW well, but something felt different. It was actually the fact that it was filled more with a film than an art audience, which was simply an unfamiliar sight. Since then I'd say you can no longer see such a big difference between our audiences. We've been able to leave a great deal of the discussions about the relationship between art and cinema behind because the audiences on both sides have become a lot more open. It was always important for us to consider the way each work is received as one of its essential components. That included such things as its length. Now, if an installation lasts for 60 minutes the exhibition visitors will accept this, they’ll take the time to watch it if they're interested. And the films we screen in the cinema are also given as much time as they require. That can sometimes mean that a programme only lasts for 30 minutes, but that gives the individual film room to breathe. Having said that, works that are being produced in the discipline of moving images between fine art and cinema, and also in disregard of these categories, still don't really have any workable definitions or their own language.

Which is good, I think.

SSS: It certainly creates a certain kind of freedom. That’s why it was also important for us to find a form which can sustain that. It can be extremely liberating to forego categories and avoid defining through assignation. But that doesn't mean that we won't talk about what we're exhibiting. Quite the opposite, we place great value on discussions in order to find a language. 'Wie soll man das nennen, was ich vermisse?' ('What should the thing be called that I'm missing?') is the title of a text by Harun Farocki. Antje Ehmann and Jan Ralske have given this title to their installation which – with reference to Farocki's idea of a picture archive of cinematic topoi – is about the motif of the door in his work. In this way their installation is intimately related to the underlying ideas of Forum Expanded in two different ways.