If you
were one of the thousands of people lining the streets to cheer on
runners at the 2011 Bupa Great North Run you might have spotted Mark
Wallinger in a camera car ahead of the elite athletes shooting his new
film, Camera Running...
Mark tells us a bit more about the film:
"In broadcast coverage of the Great North Run or any other major road
race we are given multi angled views of the runners’ progress, but we
are never more than a second or so from the next cut to the next camera,
constantly being directed where to look, so that the runner’s presence
is fleeting and our attention flighty. Of course the experience and
focus of the actual athlete is very different, but we never see it from
the runner’s perspective.
What would it be like to be at the head of a vast crowd of runners,
to see the race through the eyes of the winner, to stay within the
consciousness of that one individual throughout the entire race?
The point of view shot might best represent this experience or at
least get close enough that its relationship with reality can be dwelt
upon. This was the premise behind Camera Running: to let the viewer
imagine himself or herself as the winner of the race, if only in the
mind’s eye.
Have you ever dreamt of running, or floating along a road with everyone looking back at you?
Without a sound and with the camera’s unerringly smooth progress all
the effort, the pain, the resolve, the jarring and stress on the joints,
the tightening of muscles, the soreness and fatigue are removed and as
if in a lucid dream we glide effortlessly forward as the cityscape
scrolls silently by. Watching everything approach at a relentlessly
maintained 13.1 miles per hour is a transcendental experience; we become
disembodied.”
Camera Running premières
at BALTIC on Thursday 13 September at 6.30pm. The artist will also be
in conversation with broadcaster Kirsty Wark after the screening,
talking about the film and his current exhibition at BALTIC. Tickets are
free but must be booked in advance – email events@balticmill.com or
call 0191 478 1810.
Screenings at BALTIC continue throughout the weekend of the Great
North Run, and you can also catch the film on the big screen at Monument
Live! In Newcastle city centre from 14-16 September.
SITE is the Mark Wallinger’s largest exhibition in the UK for over a decade. Visit www.balticmill.com/whats-on/exhibitions/detail/mark-wallinger for details.
