To mark the celebration of TIFF Bell Lightbox, TIFF launched 'Essential Cinema', a multi-faceted exhibition inspired by the Essential 100 list of films. In the exhibition, each title on the list is represented by images, artifacts or works of contemporary art inspired by them. This major free exhibition at TIFF Bell Lightbox was closely tied to the expanded 2010 Future Projections programme, which included city-wide installations and projects from internationally-acclaimed contemporary artists that relate to films or filmmakers on the 'Essential 100' list.
In conjunction with the 'Essential Cinema' exhibition, TIFF Bell Lightbox commissioned four artist projects to coincide with the opening of the building.
Atom Egoyan 8 ½ SCREENS
Atom Egoyan produced a new special commission designed for TIFF Bell Lightbox's Cinema 4. The installation features clips from the screen test sequence in Federico Fellini's 8 ½, showing close-ups of actors watching film. Reversing the usual relationship between viewer and screen, audiences entered the theatre and stood in front of the stage, looking out towards the seats where multiple screens showed scenes of on-screen watching.
Guy Maddin HAUNTINGS
Guy Maddin's project haunted TIFF Bell Lightbox with a series of short film installations that engage the ghosts of cinema. Starting from the premise that every filmmaker has an unrealized project, a half-finished or abandoned film doomed to oblivion or left on the cutting-room floor, Maddin produced a series of short films that explore the lost history of cinema. From Hitchcock to Murnau to Ophuls, these "lost, unrealized and aborted" films were shown both in the main gallery space and projecting out from the fifth floor of the building every night during the festival.
James Andean and François Xavier Saint-Pierre : E-100
In this sound commission, key samples of film dialogue culled from the Essential 100 list are heard both clearly and obliquely in conjunction with a randomizer algorithm patched to various instrumental samples that include a vernacular of orchestral film sounds: swelling strings, a plaintiff piano, upbeat pop music, etc. The samples interact in random variations over the duration of a cycle, interweaving dialogue, environmental sounds and instrumental accompaniment. The piece's aleatoric programming recreates and re-contextualizes the emotional tenor of the dialogue in variously banal, discordant or surprisingly concordant ways. This sonic tapestry of film references will provide a unique space to experience cinema's most significant moments outside the visual realm.
Barr Gilmore : Essential Titles
Barr Gilmore has isolated and recreated only the title and director's credit from all of The Essential 100 films' opening title sequences— mimicking their transitions and time on screen and layering all of them in real time to create a visually stunning piece that will act as an environmental graphic at the entrance to the exhibition.
Photography by Tom Arban