“𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦
𝘐 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩－𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵
𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦..."
- Dante (as quoted by Jytte Rex)
all november
@spectaclenyc is hosting a series of films by multidisciplinary (and proudly avant garde) artist/writer/director 𝗝𝘆𝘁𝘁𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘅, organized by Nico Cadena (
@videograms_ ) and myself. While not complete, it is a FIRST EVER U.S. RETROSPECTIVE with many new scans/subtitles initiated by Jytte for the occasion...
While she is rightly regarded as a major living artist in Europe with a CV of important feminist artworks dating back to the 1970s and longstanding gallery representation, Rex’s films have never been available to see in the United States. In hopes of remedying this blind spot, Spectacle offers New Yorkers a first-ever chance to see her noted features ISOLDE (1989) and MIRRORS OF THE PLANET (1992, which played as a one-off at Spectacle in 2013) plus more recent works like THE RIVER (2003), SILK ROAD (2004), and the newly subtitled THE GIRL WITH THE PLAIT (2005), alongside her most recent video SEARCH - LIMBO (2022).
From her freewheeling dual adaptation of Borges in THE MEMORIOUS, the cosmically focused ghost-story MIRROR OF THE PLANETS to her updated retelling of classic tragedy in ISOLDE, Rex’s is a cinema that flirts with death. At once baroque and gothic while also clinical and exacting, her films invite audiences into the headspaces of characters who are near death, perhaps already taking their first steps into the afterlife or, likelier still, somewhere in between. Embracing mystery and eschewing narrative conventions, Rex’s work is imbued with a Tarkovskian sensibility, featuring quotidian video-diaries, unsettling found-footage, and private fears drawn from a lifetime of looking. Rex’s keen musical palette profoundly attunes the viewer’s attention in montages and tableaux equal parts impossible to describe and to forget.
Special thanks to Jytte Rex, the Danish Film Institute, Kong Gulerod Film and Wilson Saplana Gallery.
