Political matters

Political reality is frequently limited to a more documentary or realistic register. This programme presents different contemporary approaches to politics and the corrosive effects of capitalism, from the viewpoint of the sensitive, formalist abstraction of the visual material itself: the clandestine night-time recording of Afghan and Iraqi refugees at the camp at Sangatte, France (Border); the crushing of cars at the end of the consumer cycle (Chevelle); protests against austerity measures in Athens (Austerity Measures), and the political commentary of Ken Jacobs on the decline of capitalism.

Border, Laura Waddington, 2004, video, 27 min; Chevelle, Kevin Jerome Everson, 2012, 35 mm, 7 min; Austerity Measures, Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell, 2012, 16 mm, 8 min; Seeking the Monkey King, Ken Jacobs, 2011, Blu-ray, 39 min.