Screening: The Joycean Society
Dora Garcia, Still from The Joycean Society, 2013. Film, stereo sound. 53 min. Courtesy of Grasshopper Film.
The VAC invites you to a one-night-only screening of Dora Garcia’s film The Joycean Society, held in conjunction with the VAC’s current project, COMMONS.
James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake has long been considered one of the most challenging texts in the English Language. This utterly absorbing and fascinating documentary, directed by Dora Garcia, follows a small but dedicated group of Joyce devotees who have been reading the book together for the last thirty years.
The group reads the book, again and again, each course from the first to the last page taking eleven years. Once they arrive at the last word, a very enigmatic “the,” they start all over again, following with the first word, “river run.” The text seems inexhaustible, its interpretation endless, and the inconclusive nature of the reading exciting.
By following the group’s discussion of the text, showing heavily annotated and timeworn copies of the book, the film doesn’t just highlight the significance of Finnegan’s Wake but also the all-consuming power of art.
Special thanks to Grasshopper Film.
About the artist
Dora García lives and works in Oslo. She often works with film, performance, and theater. Her research focuses on contemporary history, ethics, and politics. García represented Spain at the 54th Venice Biennial in 2011. Her works have been exhibited internationally in museums and biennials, such as MuHKA, Antwerp; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès, Brussels; Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto; Fonderie Darling – Centre d’Arts Visuels, Montreal; FRAC Île-de-France, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris; as well as (d)OCUMENTA 13 in Kassel, 2nd Athens Biennial, Lyon Biennial, 29th São Paulo Biennial, and the Gwangju Biennial.