Toxic Camera in Florence and Art Basel
It is great to see The Toxic Camera (2012), by British Artists's Jane and Louise Wilson still touring internationally and attracting such a wide audience.
I produced the film through Forma Arts with funding from Film London's FLAMIN scheme. The work was commissioned to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and was inspired by the film Chernobyl: A Chronicle of Difficult Weeks (1986) made by Soviet filmmaker Vladimir Shevchenko in the days immediately following the accident. Shevchenko subsequently died years later as a result of radiation poisoning. The film, explores interconnecting stories from interviews conducted with Chernobyl 'veterans' and with Shevchenko's film crew, 25 years after the incident.
The narrative includes the story of the camera that Shevchenko used which became so highly radioactive that it was subsequently buried on the outskirts of Kiev. Adriane Searle, upon reviewing The Toxic Camera had the following to say:
"The camera glides, rises and falls. It is a witness and guide, leading you on and detaining you ... The Wilsons' work is more than just a film"
Back in March Jane and Louise were invited to show the film at the exquisite cinema in Florence as part of the Lo Schermo Dell'Arte Film Festival, where they were invited to deliver a Q&A.
And in June, Jane and Louise were invited by Art Basel in Germany, the world's premier international art show for Modern and contemporary works, as part of Art Basel Film | Thinking About the Aftermath. Curated by Marc Glöde, Thinking About the Aftermath brings together works that deal in various ways with the catastrophic and the events that follow. The screening of the film was followed by a Q&A Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani, and Marc Glöde.
It's great to be working with them again on a new project for the Imperial War Museum which we will start filming this August.
Find out more
We're in production and development so things are always changing. Ohna will be keeping the news page and Twitter feed up to date. But if you want to know more please do get in touch!
