In conjunction with Tai Kwun Contemporary’s summer 2022 exhibition Behind Your Eyelid—Pipilotti Rist, Pipilotti Rist’s Choice will present films selected by the artist Pipilotti Rist that inspire and resonate with her artistic practice, thinking, and creativity, to give the audience insight into the artist's creative vision.
Daisies
Time: 7:30 pm–9 pm, 11 August 2022
Venue: JC Cube
Director: Vera Chytilová
Czech｜1966｜74 min｜B&W, Colour｜In Czech with Chinese and English subtitles ｜IIA
One of the most anarchic films of all time, Vera Chytilová’s absurdist farce follows the misadventures of two brash young women. Believing the world to be “spoiled”, they embark on a series of pranks in which nothing—food, clothes, men, war—is taken seriously. Daisies is an aesthetically and politically adventurous film that is widely considered one of the great works of feminist cinema.
* This will be an open seating event.
Pepperminta
Time: 7:30 pm–9 pm, 2 September 2022
Venue: JC Cube
Director: Pipilotti Rist
Switzerland / Austria｜2009｜80 min｜Colour｜In German with Chinese and English subtitles｜III
A vivacious and eternal optimist, Pepperminta sees and does things differently. She wants to change the world—and will. But she cannot do it alone. It comes a fun, audacious, and most unusual contemporary fantasy in which everything is possible.
* This will be an open seating event.
The event will adhere to the latest health and safety regulations and enforce social distancing measures.
Artists Under the Big Top: Perplexed
Time: 7:30 pm–9:30pm, 14 October 2022
Venue: JC Cube
Director: Alexander Kluge
West Germany｜1968｜100 min｜B&W, Colour｜In German with Chinese and English subtitles｜IIB
After losing her father in a trapeze accident, elephant trainer Leni Peickert inherits his circus and struggles to keep the show running. Incorporating a collage of news footage and philosophy quotations, the film is regarded as a classic of the West German avant-garde, and it won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion in 1968. Director Alexander Kluge depicts Leni, played by Hannelore Hoger, as a determined visionary if poor businesswoman, her frustrations symbolic of Kluge’s own battles to birth the New German Cinema movement, facing down the cultural establishments, conservative societies and reluctant audiences that confound any artistic innovation.
* This will be an open seating event.
The screening is supported by Goethe-Institut Hongkong.
Alexander Kluge
A public intellectual, author and philosopher as well as a renowned film director, Alexander Kluge is considered the “godfather” of New German Cinema. Kluge was among the 26 young German filmmakers who in 1962 issued the Oberhausen Manifesto calling for a new form of filmmaking. Still an active critical voice at age 90, Kluge’s filmography also includes Yesterday Girl (1966) and The Big Mess (1971).
The Holy Mountain
Time: 7:30 pm–9:30pm, 15 October 2022
Venue: JC Cube
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Mexico｜1973｜114 min｜B&W, Colour｜In English/ Spanish with Chinese and English subtitles｜III
Alejandro Jodorowsky directed, wrote and starred in this psychedelic satire of the spiritual quest trope. The Chilean-French auteur plays an all-powerful alchemist who partners with a messianic figure played by Horacio Salinas to lead a pack of pilgrims who serve as avatars for human shortcomings to a mystical mountain that promises enlightenment and immortality. Driven by elaborate visual allegory rather than plot, the provocative 1973 film indicts capitalism, organised religion as well as popular spirituality in its exploration of the absurdity of all quests for deeper meaning.
* This will be an open seating event.
Alejandro Jodorowsky
The surrealistic films of Alejandro Jodorowsky establish an alternate psychomagical world. Born in Chile, Jodorowsky started as a circus clown and puppeteer before studying mime with Marcel Marceau in Paris. He created the Panic Movement and the comic "Fabulas Panicas" while moving between film and theatre, and Europe and Latin America. Jodorowsky’s 1970s works El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973) exemplify that decade’s wild spirit.