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Pier Paolo Pasolini, Edipo Re, 1967
35mm Film presentation 
Introduction Mathias Poledna 

Film screening 

Pier Paolo Pasolini, Edipo Re, 1967

According to Pier Paolo Pasolini, Edipo Re (1967) is his most autobiographical film. It is a cinematic interpretation of the drama Oedipus the King or Oedipus the Tyrant (ca. 429 – 425 BC), by the Greek tragedian Sophocles, which deals with the myth of Oedipus.

Pasolini’s cinematic version combines two Oedipus figures: an Oedipus character who finds himself in the 20th century, as well as the mythical figure from antiquity. The film begins around the 1920s with a boy being breastfed by his mother in a meadow. Due to the jealousy of his father, who fears that the love between son and mother is stronger than that between him and his wife, the mother’s attention towards her son decreases — the father is hateful towards him. The narrative then shifts to ancient Greece, where a young Oedipus is abandoned, found by a shepherd and brought to the king of Corinth, where he grows up. Oedipus, unaware of his true identity, kills his father, the king of Laius, and then marries his mother, Iocaste. After his deeds and his true relationship to the murdered King come to light, he loses everything, gouges out his eyes and leaves his palace, while Iocaste kills herself. Once again, the action shifts in time, now to the 1960s present day. The blind Oedipus sits in front of Bologna’s cathedral and plays a flute. He is finally led by a companion to the very meadow where the film began. This is where Oedipus finds peace.

Mathias Poledna’s intervention at HALLE FÜR KUNST draws comparisons to Pasolini’s cinematic imagery – not only through his alterations to the visual identity of the institution, which he keeps entirely in black and white, but also the way in which Pasolini jumps between antiquity and modernity, or to his present, creating references and following a similar procedure to how Poledna creates connections and references through objects in the exhibition like his own archive. The screening of Edipo Re  is another an intervention in Poledna’s exhibition, as it will be projected by a 35mm projector onto the projection screen built especially for the exhibition. There will not only be a projectionist for this event, but the film will be presented in its original Italian version with English subtitles provided by the Cinecittá distribution company in Rome.

Mathias Poledna himself will be on site to give an introduction.

Artists

Participating artists

Mathias Poledna

(*1965 Vienna, lives in Los Angeles)

Solo Exhibitions (Selection): Galerie Buchholz, Cologne (2022), Galerie Buchholz, New York (2020), The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2014), The Art Institute of Chicago (2014), 55. Bienniale di Venezia, Austrian Pavilion (2013), Secession, Vienna (2013), Galerie Buchholz, Berlin (2012), Raven Row
(2011), Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (2010), Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2010), New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2009), Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (2009), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2007), Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2006), Galerie Buchholz, Cologne (2006), Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles (2005), Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2004), Mumok – Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna (2003), Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles (2002), Grazer Kunstverein (2001).

Group Exhibitions (Selection): Haubrok Foundation (2023), Made in L.A. Biennial, Hammer Museum / Huntington Museum, Los Angeles (2021), Mumok – Museum of Modern Art Foundation Ludwig Vienna (2021), Kunsthalle Bern (2020), Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2019), Liverpool Biennial (2018), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2018), Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (2017), Kunstverein Hamburg (2016), Sydney Biennial (2014), Busan Biennial (2012), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2012),Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2008), Haubrok Foundation (2011), Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2010), Galerie Václava Spály, Prag (2009), Yokohama Triennale (2008), MOCA / The Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles (2008), Sala Rekalde, Bilbao (2007), Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006), Haus der Kunst, Munich (2005), Generali Foundation, Vienna (2005), Berlin Biennale, Kunstwerke Berlin (2004), Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003).

Pier Paolo Pasolini

*1922 in Bologna, IT, †1975 in Ostia, IT

was an Italian film director, poet and publicist. 

Filmography (selection): Accattone (1961), Mamma Roma (1962), Location Hunting in Palestine (1963), The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966), The Witches (1967), Edipo Re (1967), Teorema (1968), Love and Anger (1969), Pigsty (1969), Medea (1969), The Decameron (1971), The 12th of December (1971), The Canterbury Tales (1972), Arabian Nights (1974), Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). 

Pier Paolo Pasolini, Edipo Re, 1967