ADA ROTTERDAM

A Womand Under the Influence (John Cassavetes) and Not She (Ine Lamers)

A screening of two films on the construction of female identity in cinema. Introduction by Ine Lamers.

A Woman under the Influence
Release: 1974
Director: John Cassavetes, ft Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk
Runtime: 155 min.

Not She
Release: 2005
Director: Ine Lamers, ft Thekla Reuten
Runtime: 45 min.
Runtime total programme: (including short break): 220 mins

In Not She, an actress in an abandoned film set (Thekla Reuten playing Mimi), identifies herself with three female screen characters from films from the 60s. By reenacting scenes and mimicking the acting, she respectively turns into the sensible Mabel from Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence, the unstable Giuliani from Antonioni’s Red Desert, and the rather mystical A. from Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad. By deconstructing these impalpable female screen parts, and presenting women on the edge, Not She reflects on the formation of identity. At the same time the work poses questions about processes of identification and about the role cinema plays in our understanding of our ‘self’.

In December’s cinema, Ine Lamers will show both her work Not She and one of the films of her inspiration A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes. Cassavetes (1929-1989), often called the founder of American independent cinema, is well known for his documentary style of filming to accommodate the spontaneity and improvisations of his actors. A Woman under the Influence is a deeply psychological drama revolving around the sensible housewife Mabel (played by Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes wife). Her mind is consumed with gaining acceptance by her surroundings and with fusing. Slowly her ability to keep up with normal everyday situations reaches full capacity. In A Woman under the Influence, Cassavetes intimately portrays a woman that can be called strong and fragile at the same time and in being so confuses her surroundings.

Side information:
From November 22nd until January 6th Lantaren/Venster shows a
retrospective of John Cassavetes.

Practical information:
Tuesday 15 December | A Women Under the Influence and Not She introduced by Ine Lamers
19:00 | Project space | Bree 93B |Rotterdam
Contact: margo.onnes [at] gmail [dot] com

Due to the longer programme, the starting time is 19:00.

ADA will take part in the exhibition ‘Florida’ organised by Tent. in ‘t Gemaal. De Player, ADA, Sensational Mix and NAC, initiatives based in South Rotterdam, have been invited to ‘take over’ ‘t Gemaal for one week to present their way of working. The exhibition opens on Saturday the 12th of December at 18.00 and runs until the 24th of January.

Between 30 December and 3 January ADA will create a winter garden in ‘t Gemaal. People are invited to view the surrounding botanical display and to use the garden for coming together, meeting, talking, relaxing and reflection. Gardens are a marker of civilized life. They represent order and culture, express philosophy and support ideologies. Their design directs our gaze and choreographs our bodily movement in and through space. Gardens evoke scenes, they mimic nature and orchestrate illusions for the purposes of visual pleasure, but they also inspire and educate, hide and reveal, shelter lovers and honor the dead.

The garden in ‘t Gemaal forms a thematic point of departure for a number of activities, such as a lecture on the architecture of interior public spaces. Two artist talk on their works and present the material they have collected during their research. Besides this a poetry reading is organised in the garden as well as a lecture from the kitchen and a concert composed for plants.

In addition to the winter garden in ‘t Gemaal regular public projects Cinema Sunset, P for Performance and Open Office for Words are held at the ADA studios.

An extra dedicated newsletter announcing all the events that will take place in the winter garden and at ADA will be sent out later. If you like to be notified, please subscribe to our newsletter. Below you can find a programme overview.

The Winter Garden programme in ‘t Gemaal:
Saturday 2 January 2010 | 17.30 – 20.30
17.30 Kitchen Lecture, a performance by Deirdre M. Donoghue, hosted by P for Performance. The performance is accompanied by a meal.
19.00 A lecture on video by artist/designer/writer Mark Pimlott on the architecture of interior public spaces.

Sunday 3 January 2010 | 15.00 – 18.00
15.00 The Symbolics of Swimming Pools in Classical Cinema. A presentation of research by video artist Margo Onnes.
Coffee Break.
16.00 Poetrying, an open poetry reading organised by artist duo SKART and Maja Bekan for P for Performance. To participate with your poems please send your name, date of birth and 2 poems to: pforperformance[at]gmail[dot]com
17.45 A ‘garden concert’ specially composed for plants by Gerwin Luijendijk.

On all days a diaporama can be viewed and listened to in the garden. In the diaporama artist Matts Leiderstam talks about his work.

Shaw Gardens (August 1915)

ADA Rotterdam has a new building.

We are very pleased to announce that on October the 1st, 2009, we will be moving from Houtlaan 21 to our new building located in Feijenoord. We are very excited about this move as it will give us a lot more space to host our public program, build permanent workshops for woodwork, photography, video editing and more, as well as that there will be an easier access from the street than we have previously had. Since we are busy renovating the building right now, there are fewer activities than usual this month.

Our new address is Bree 97, and the building is located at the corner of Groene Hilledijk and Bree. Please click here to see a map of the exact location.