Unfolding the Aryan Papers

Jane & Louise Wilson
Unfolding the Aryan Papers
13 Feb – 26 Apr 2009

Open Tue – Sun
(and Bank Holiday Mondays)
11:00 – 20:00
FREE ADMISSION

Belvedere Rd
London SE1 8XT

www.bfi.org.uk/gallery

This new commission by Animate Projects and the BFI, focuses on Stanley Kubrick’s unfinished project Aryan Papers, a film about the Holocaust based on Louis Begley’s book Wartime Lies. Prior to telling the story of a Polish Jewish woman and her nephew, who pretend to be Catholic in order to avoid persecution during the Nazi occupation of their country, Kubrick researched the project for many years and got as far as choosing the actors and the locations, but unfortunately the film was never made.

Researching the material available, Jane & Louise Wilson have focused on wardrobe research stills as well as period stills from the pre-production phase of Aryan Papers. The Gallery installation concentrates on newly-shot footage of Johanna ter Steege, the actress featured in the photographs originally taken by Stanley Kubrick and chosen by him as the female lead of the film. In a statement on this project, they commented on the ‘enigmatic quality’ of having only fragments of Aryan Papers available, something which they consider ‘profoundly cinematic’. It is precisely the fragmentary nature of Aryan Papers which allowed the artists to work freely with the available material, without the constraints of competing with an already existing film. Despite not having been able to appear in the film, the female figure in the Wilsons’ work is granted a visibility which was denied to her by the final course of events.

Jane & Louise Wilson are considered to be among the best artists of their generation in using the moving image. They have worked collaboratively for over 20 years on projects which are frequently research-based. Whether dealing with the Bosnian-Herzegovinian refugee community of Derby, decaying World War II bunkers or the dilapidated former Stasi headquarters in Berlin, the artists’ sensibility for difficult subjects is expressed by carefully presenting their photographs and technically challenging moving image installations. The controlled nature of their works and the importance of meticulous research provide an interesting link between Kubrick and the Wilsons, which makes this project particularly fascinating. The exhibition also coincides with an extensive Stanley Kubrick season at BFI Southbank, providing an entrancing new context for the artists’ work.

A commission by Animate Projects and the BFI with The Stanley Kubrick Archives, University of the Arts London.

Talks and Screenings:

Jane & Louise Wilson in Conversation
The artists talk to art historian and broadcaster Andrew Graham-Dixon. Wed 18 Feb, 18.10 at BFI Southbank.

The exhibition is also accompanied by a series of films selected by Jane & Louise Wilson and the artists and coincides with a two month retrospective of Stanley Kubrick’s work.

www.bfi.org.uk/gallery