THE DIRECTORS ‘MANUAL’ ON FILM GOES ON TOUR

Next month, FACT will begin a national tour of ‘Manual’, the first two-person show of filmmakers Christoph Girardet and Matthias Müller to be staged in the UK.
Manual (2002) combines material closely based on US television series of the 60s with the voices of several female protagonists of the 40s and 50s Hollywood melodramas. It explores attitudes of the future as a technological utopia, while celebrating television’s attempts at constructing future worlds and environments. The title, ‘Manual’, alludes to growing concerns about influence of technology in society, and the influence of cultural codes that rule our daily lives.
Matthias Müller is considered by many to be one of Germany’s most important experimental filmmakers, and Christoph Girardet is a specialist in found footage film. The artists first collaborated in the six-volume ‘Phoenix Tapes’ (1999), commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford for the exhibition ‘Notorious - Alfred Hitchcock and Contemporary Art’.
The ‘Manual’ exhibition will take place at the Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, from February 16 to March 23, and the Milch Gallery, London, from April 11 to May 26. A microcatalogue, featuring an essay by The Independent newpaper’s film critic, Chris Darke, will accompany the show. A gallery talk will be held at 2pm on Saturday February 16, and Christoph Girardet and Matthias Müller will also present a guided tour of their work.
The ‘Manual’ exhibition is funded through the Arts Council of England’s national touring programme. (GMcG)