Close-Up presents the final two programmes of Mika Taanila’s London-wide survey, and parallel interventions in sound and silence, featuring Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic) and Erkki Kurenniemi.

“In a career dominated by the recuperation of technology and "progress" from consumer ideologies, Mika Taanila is the celluloid-wielding soothsayer of Nordic moving image; a key proponent and unparalleled forebear of "post-cinema". With the wonder of a healthy child and the world-worn knowing of a healthy ADULT, Taanila’s domain is of binary collisions: man and machine (mastering / malfunctioning); implacable scientific and technological advance (mastering / malfunctioning); nuclear POWER (!); failed – and possible – utopias ... an art of the future-past, which visits London at a critical juncture in the culture, and the times, in what will be the most complete international survey of his practice to date.” – Stanley Schtinter

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Programme 1: Electric Forest

Close-Up presents a rare opportunity to experience Finnish experimental films selected and introduced by Mika Taanila

Kineettisiä kuvia, Eino Ruutsalo, 1962, 7 min, B/W, Digital
Two Chickens, Eino Ruutsalo, 1964, 4 min, Colour, Digital
Electronics in the World of Tomorrow, Erkki Kurenniemi, 1964, 5 min, Colour, Digital
Flora & Fauna, Erkki Kurenniemi, 1965, 6 min, Colour, Digital
Spindrift, Jan Bark & Erkki Kurenniemi, 1966/2013, 14 min, B/W, 35mm
Good Night, Pasi “Sleeping” Myllymäki, 1978, 7 min, Colour, Digital
3000 Cars, Pasi “Sleeping” Myllymäki, 1980, 2’28 min, Colour, Digital
Horizontal, Pasi “Sleeping” Myllymäki, 1979, 3’37 min, Colour, Digital
Kinescope, Eino Ruutsalo, 1991, 11 min, Colour, Digital

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Programme 2: Museum Planet

Followed by Mika Taanila in conversation with Maria Palacios Cruz

Futuro: A New Stance for Tomorrow, Mika Taanila, 1998, 29 min, Colour, 35mm
The Future Is not What it Used to Be, Mika Taanila, 2002, 52 min, Colour, 35mm
Sommerreise, Mika Taanila, 2006, 3 min, Colour, 16mm

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Parallel Programme: The Listening Screen

The Listening Screen is the pitch-black auditorium, for which Taanila has produced two exclusive sound installations of music by his collaborators and mentors, both of whom sadly passed away earlier this year. read more

The Listening Screen I: Mika Vainio

In this tribute, Taanila manipulates samples, sounds and compositions never before heard outside of the cutting room, from his extensive collaborations with the Pan Sonic musician.

The Listening Screen II: Erkki Kurenniemi

Taanila revisits private dairy and field recordings of Kurenniemi, as well as the sounds of his instruments. An intensely personal and private rumination on Kurenniemi’s adamant and inspiring will to live.

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Part of a mid-career survey of Taanila’s work, featuring over thirty moving image works, three installations, and radical cultural interventions presented or made across London: 19 October, Return of the Atom screening at ICA; 20 October, Ruton Music performance featuring Mika Taanila, Charles Hayward & more at Café Oto; 21 October, Film After Film screening programme at Whitechapel Gallery; 16-22 October extented exhibits, Thankyou for the Muzak on NTS and My Silence at Leman Locke; and 6 October, prologue Render Ghosts at Central Saint Martins

Curated by keeper of the sacred knowledge at Close-Up Film Centre, and superior managing director at purge.xxx, Stanley Schtinter

Special thanks to Frame Finland, the Finnish Film Foundation, Lasse Saarinen, Av-Arkki and the Finnish Institute for making this programme possible

Image: Mika Taanila, photo by Sanna Skants

More info: purge.xxx/mika