Edgar Arceneaux and Charles Gaines
Snake River

The exhibition centers around a new film by the two Californian artists, which Lentos is co-producing together with Redcat, Los Angeles, and which will be filmed at locations in Linz, Los Angeles and the magnificent river landscape of the Snake River in Wyoming.

The film and the accompanying installation deal with three cultural spaces, weaving them into a dense network of mutual references: the Brucknerhaus in Linz, the Walt Disney Concert Hall/​LA Philharmonic in Los Angeles and the over 1000 km long Snake River, one of the lifelines of the American West. In Linz a rehearsal will be filmed of the Bruckner Quartet with music by Anton Bruckner, while an ensemble from the LA Philharmonic devotes itself to music by the contemporary composer Thomas Ades. The film develops complex interlockings between historical and contemporary motifs, which mark significant phases in the connection of the two continents: the European and American industrialization and the parallel ​“conquest” of the American West, both resulting in lasting damage, whereas the pathos of progress predominates in the art / music of the 19th century.

In addition to other works by Arceneaux and Gaines, the exhibition ​“Snake River” at Lentos will present parts of the film as a work in progress. The final version will be presented in fall 2006 at Redcat in Los Angeles.

A two-volume catalogue will be published, documenting the work of the two artists and the installations in Linz and Los Angeles.

Edgar Arceneaux (born 1972, lives and works in Los Angeles)
Charles Gaines (born 1944, lives and works in Los Angeles)

The project takes place in the framework of transform​.eipcp​.net and with support from the Culture 2000 program of the European Union.