FROM THE COLLECTION – RECENT ACQUISITION: Tacita Dean, Craneway Event, 2009

In November 2008, Tacita Dean filmed the choreographer Merce Cunningham [1919–2009] and his company as they rehearsed over three days in an industrial building that had once housed an old Ford assembly line in Richmond, California. By attending these rehearsals the artist was able to observe closely Cunningham’s choreographic process, namely the construction of the dance without music. Craneway Event has since become one of the most important records of Cunningham’s working methods as well as a powerful document of an unrepeatable event. The 1 hour and 48 minutes long film is one of Dean’s most ambitious works to date and is emblematic of the themes of portraiture, movement, and narrative that have defined the artist’s oeuvre over more than twenty years. The work is also an exemplary account of the consciousness of the passage of time – a constant feature of Dean’s works together with the use of analogue film, the medium of registering time par excellence.The integration of Craneway Event into the Serralves Collection reinforces the Museum’s commitment to reflecting the relationship between the visual and performing arts, and consolidates the artist’s long relationship with Serralves, which began with her exhibition at the Museum in 2001 and her subsequent commission, Boots (2003), filmed in the Serralves Villa.
Screening hoursTue-Fri: 10h30 and 14h30 Sat-Sun: 10h30, 14h00 and 16h30 Related Activities 10 OCT (SAT), 16H30-18H30: WORKSHOP FOR FAMILIES "BODY-BOAT, BOAT-BIRD, BIRD-ME"