Free screenings take place on Saturdays in August in the alley ouside Arts + Literature Laboratory.
From jam-packed projector screenings on the Memorial Union Terrace to MMoCA’s Rooftop Cinema, outdoor films seem to be in the very DNA of Madison summers.
Perhaps the most gritty and experimental of these is Off the Wall, a video art series put on by Arts + Literature Laboratory (ALL) in partnership with the Madison Film Forum. What sets these screenings apart is their unusual venue.
Removing itself from the gallery space entirely, Off the Wall will be held outdoors, in the brick alley adjacent to the ALL space at 2021 Winnebago St.
Simone Doing and Max Puchalsky, curators of the series, say they hope to create some of the feeling of visiting fast-disappearing drive-in theaters, but with more experimental offerings. “Creating new experiences for viewers to encounter art in unexpected ways is something ALL is passionate about, and we love the idea that someone out walking in the neighborhood could stumble upon Off the Wall and be interested enough to stay,” says Puchalsky.
To create the series, Doing and Puchalsky reviewed nearly 300 submissions from six continents, ultimately choosing 40 — a combination of experimental documentary, video collage and animation. “We are primarily interested in video as a picture medium as opposed to a narrative medium,” says Doing.
Another thing that distinguishes Off the Wall from other video series is the number and length of pieces presented. Between nine and 11 pieces will be shown at each roughly 50-minute screening session.
The first night of the series on Aug. 5 featured 11 different works, including Civilized Landscapes (2017) by Rochester, New York-based artist Taryn Ward. At just over one minute in length, it features ambient sound and slowly zooming looped video of the iconic, painted 1960s Paramount Pictures logo, depicting the crest of a mountain against a clear sky. Quickly accelerating, Civilized Landscapes then layers five decades worth of changing Paramount logos over a cacophonous score. The end result is a brief and overwhelming experience that evokes the dangers of hyper-commercialization.
The second screening on Aug. 12 will feature works from 11 artists, including Hyper-Reality (2016) by Keiichi Matsuda. The six-minute piece, according to the artist, depicts “a provocative and kaleidoscopic new vision of the future, where physical and virtual realities have merged, and the city is saturated in media.” Part dystopian warning, part jarring kaleidoscopic study in color and digital overlay, Hyper-Reality addresses the filmmaker’s concerns about society’s technological consumption.
Off the Wall screenings take place outside Arts + Literature Laboratory (2021 Winnebago St.) Saturdays on Aug. 12, 19 and 26. Seating for the free event begins at 8:30 p.m., with the program beginning at 9 p.m.