Venom and Eternity, Copyright Jean Isidore Isou, 1951
Wednesday, July 8th, 7 pm
Venom and Eternity
(Jean Isidore Isou, 1951)
EFA Project Space presents Chaperone, a weekly screening series consisting of films handpicked by a group of artists, all whose work provocatively explores disparate aspects of our culture’s love affair with mediated reality.
EFA Project Space welcomes the artist Amy Granat, as she chaperones the film, Venom and Eternity (1951):
“Jean Isidore Isou (born I. Goldstein in 1925, in Botosani, Romania) was a writer of many published works, including short stories, novels, poetry and essays. He was also a founder of the Lettrist Movement. Isou wrote, directed, photographed, composed the music for, and acted in Venom and Eternity. In the film, which Isou refers to as a “revolt against cinema,” he attempts to discuss what was wrong with the cinema, and then goes on to show examples of what he thinks the cinema should consist of. Stan Brakhage, who viewed this film many, many times and used it in his classroom, describes Venom as “an extremely formal work, an extremely fine, balanced work.” Whether or not this film represents artistic expression will have to be the individual decision of each viewer. In the words of Jean Cocteau, “Is Venom a springboard or is it a void? In 50 years we’ll know the answer. After all, remember how Wagner was received. Today, no one objects to his outbursts. The day will come, perhaps, when Isou’s style will be the fashion. Who can tell?” When Venom and Eternity was first shown at the Cannes Film Festiva,l it caused a riot requiring fire hoses to be brought in. The film had its American premiere at Frank Stauffacher’s Art in Cinema at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and again caused a disturbance and a stomp-out. Brakhage and several other artists, including Robert Duncan, were at the premiere, and were outraged to learn that a Roman Catholic priest had been brought in to warn the audience of French decadence. According to Isou, “A film alone cannot assay the value of a system which embraces thousands of possibilities. In this work, I was more excited about the schism of image than about satisfying the demands of convention.”
Image courtesy the artist, Amy Granat, and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich
Amy Granat’s work combines film, sound, performance, photography, and installation with distinctly poetic and formal juxtapositions. Drawing inspiration from early cinema, noise music, abstract painting, and beat literature, she embraces the culture of the past avant garde, reflecting and informing its future. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and received her BA from Bard College in 1994. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at P.S.1 Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Eva Presenhuber Galerie, Zurich; Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers’ and Basis Art Center, Frankfurt. She has been featured in such recent group exhibitions as Stray Alchemist at UCCA, Beijing; Strange Magic at Luhring Augistine, New York; Bastard Ceature at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; and Born to Be Wild at Kunstmuseum, St.Gallen. She will show a new feature film at a solo exhibition at The Kitchen in New York City in January 2010. Granat lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
EFA Project Space is located at 323 West 39 Street, 2nd Floor.
The Chaperone program has been organized by Ian Cooper, artist, and Michelle Levy, Program Director, EFA Project Space.
Sponsorship provided by 
For more information on the event, contact projectspace@efanyc.org, or 212-563-5855 x 151