Saturday, June 23, 2007
Darren Banks, Catherine Bertola & Marcus Coates in Metteurs en Scène, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh
Metteurs en Scène
Embassy Gallery
Edinburgh
23rd June - 15th July 2007
Opening Night: Friday 22nd June 7-9pm
Marcus Coates
Catherine Bertola
Darren Banks
Susie Green
Ilana Mitchell
Dirigé près MSc Contemporary Art Theory
Centre pour des études Visuelles et Culturelles
Edimbourg Ecole des Beaux-Arts
Curated by students currently completing the MSc in Contemporary Art Theory in the Centre for Visual & Cultural Studies at Edinburgh College of Art, this group exhibition brings together the work of artists associated with the artist-led Star and Shadow Cinema in Newcastle (Susie Green and Ilana Mitchell) and Workplace Gallery in Gateshead (Marcus Coates, Catherine Bertola and Darren Banks). The work they have selected can be seen to explore the concept of mise en scene via film, video and installation. Scene-setting and staging is paramount here, with discreete installations and tableau being construed as taking the form of 'sets'.
The curators are metteurs-en-scène since they seek to bring together the different perspectives of a number of artists and their organisational contexts in the North East of England rather focusing on the vision of a singular director. They want to make it explicit to the audience that they are simply a group working with other groups - and in turn highlight the synergies between The Embassy and similar independent organisations such as Star and Shadow and Workplace. By posing the question of authorship in relation to the dusty concept of mise-en- scène borrowed from film theory, they hope to illustrate how spaces can be given a sense of identity through the influence of many different components and the collaborative investment of artists.