"Movie lights switching on and erasing the image or illuminating darkness."

"I’m into certain tendencies within horror cinema that make the genre porous and open towards reality. I’ll show a selection of clips from horror movies to illustrate that idea, but also to think through it cinematically and from the excited distance that gives birth to monsters. The clips I’ll be showing are seeping through the rational limits of post-war Japan, cold war Eastern Europe, infitah-era Egypt, post-junta Greece and sub-prime mortgage crisis USA - though they are not therefore un-rational. They are the first visual references I’ve collected, so I’m not going to give a straightforward talk but rather outline some notions I’m currently obsessed with and make an attempt at the beginning a conversation. I’m frightened. Bring popcorn."
- Anja Kirschner


Biography

Anja Kirschner (b.1977, Munich) lives and works in London and Athens. She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and took part in the Lux Associate Artists Programme in 2007/08. Since 2008 she is an Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Arts, London. Together with David Panos, they were awarded the Jarman Award in 2011. Together, they also participated in the Liverpool Biennial (2012), the British Art Show 7 (2010/2012) and the 2nd Athens Biennial (2009). Kirschner and Panos' films works and video installations, bring together historical research, performance, literary sources and popular genre references, frequently deal with moments where material ruptures and political transformations reveal social contradictions but also give birth to new cultural forms and class formations. Anja Kirschner is represented by Hollybush Gardens, London, and her films are distributed by the LUX and BFI.

Ultimate Substance (2013), a work by Kirschner and Panos is on view at Beirut in context of "The Magic of the State". Until 6 April 2013.