Guy Maddin at CPH PIX 2012
One of the main names at this year's CPH PIX is Guy Maddin. The Canadian surrealist, video artist and film maestro will visit the festival himself and the audience in Copenhagen will have the chance not only to attend the Danish premiere of Maddin's latest movie, 'Keyhole' (2011), but also to see his exhibition 'Hauntings I'.
Actor Udo Kier in Maddin's latest movie, 'Keyhole'.
A haunted filmmaker
Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin is not only a unique film director. He also has a great talent for video art, which his exhibition 'Hauntings I' shows.
The large collection of video works is a tribute to lost silent films, which Maddin tries to bring back to life. Films that were either never completed, lost in transportation, or simply have decayed. The films only lived through words of never used manuscripts and the ideas of the original filmmakers.
Rather than attempt to restore or recreate these lost films, Maddin uses them as a base for his installation, which shows the inspiration from and the idea of the cinematic ghosts and the lost films, that have haunted Maddin himself.
Maddin's mystique
In addition to the installation, CPH PIX will present Maddin's latest film, 'Keyhole', for the first time in Denmark. 'Keyhole', a classic Maddin film, is based on Joyce's novel Ulysses and follows a gangster on a journey through his own home. It's a classic Maddin film where not even a house is too small to have its own mystical, gloomy and surreal universe.
'Keyhole' had its premiere at last year's Toronto International Film Festival and is now touring film festivals worldwide. 'Hauntings I' was first shown at Toronto International Film Festival, who also commissioned the whole collection of video works (including 'Hauntings II', which was created for the space it was shown in and thus doesn't travel) and has since been showed in Maddin's hometown Winnipeg, Canada and selected locations in Europe.
The exhibition in Copenhagen, which will be open during the whole film festival, will take place at Overgaden - Institute For Contemporary Art and is co-sponsored by the Danish Arts Council.
'Hauntings I': Exhibition by Guy Maddin. 12-29 April at Overgaden, Copenhagen. CPH PIX 2012.
'Keyhole'(2011): Directed by Guy Maddin. Danish Premiere at CPH PIX 2012.
Watch the Keyhole trailer
