Tony Conrad DreaMinimalist*

With his first film The Flicker, Tony Conrad produced an authoritative work of structural film in 1966 and became a central figure of the US avantgarde. By focusing on the film material itself and the media-specific conditions of the cinematic apparatus, the viewer's attention is drawn to his or her own perceptual processes. The rhythmic pulsation of black and transparent frames creates stroboscopic flashes of light that work on the retinas of the viewers until they begin to see (imagined) colours and shapes.

The interest in exploring sensory capacities is also a central theme in the films of the 1970s. The interplay between the essential elements of the cinematic situation and their effects on the spectator(s) raises the question: What is film? Tony Conrad also addresses these questions in his Expanded Cinema works. Since the cinema experience is an audiovisual experience, sound also plays a central role in Tony Conrad's works.

Tony Conrad's video works of the later years are less well-known. Here, too, the artist questions media-inherent conditions and deconstructs them. In a humorous way, gaze regimes are broken up, gender concepts are questioned and discourses of power are subverted.

Tony Conrad is not only a filmmaker, but also a musician and composer. He became known as a co-founder of minimal music and a member of The Dream Syndicate (together with John Cale, Angus MacLise, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela). Through the use of long time intervals and non-western harmonic theory, listening habits are challenged. (Michaela Grill)

Program 1
Articulation of Boolean Algebra for Film Opticals (1975, 16mm, b/w, 10 Min.)
Phonograph (1979, 16mm, b/w, silent, 1 Min.)
Accordion (1981, Video, colour, 12 Min.)
Literature and Revolution (1985, Video, colour, 3 Min.)
No Europe (1990, Video, colour, 14 Min.)
Claiming L.A. (2002, Video, colour, 2 Min.)
Scotch Tape Jack Smith (1963, 16mm, b/w, 3 Min., Music: Tony Conrad)
Conversation II (2005, Video, colour, 6 Min.)
Straight and Narrow Tony & Beverly Conrad (1970, 16mm, b/w, 10 Min.)

Program 2
Lookers (1984, Video, colour, 3 Min., work in progress)
7302 Creole (1973, 16mm, colour, silent, 1 Min.)
Curried 7302 (1973, 16mm, colour, silent, 2 Min.)
The Eye of Count Flickerstein (1975, 16mm, b/w, silent, 7 Min.)
Film Feedback (1974, 16mm, b/w, silent, 14 Min.)
An Immense Majority (1987, Video, colour, 7 Min.)
Hello Happiness (2001, Video, colour, 1 Min.)
4-x Attack (1973, 16mm, b/w, silent, 1 Min.)
The Flicker (1966, 16mm, b/w, 30 Min.)

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