In 1986, one of the most famous crimes against art was committed when a man attacked a Barnett Newman painting in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum with a box cutter, slashing the large abstract canvas as an act of anti-modernist vandalism. After American conservator Daniel Goldreyer was hired to restore the painting, nobody expected what happened next – the canvas arriving home plastered over crudely with red paint and a roller. Artist and filmmaker Barbara Visser calls into question the value of art, cultural gatekeeping and notions of appropriation and authorship with her playful and innovative investigation into what makes art art.

+ Q&A with director Barbara Visser. UK Premiere.

Screens with:

The Sleeping Fool | Sofia Saldanha | 2010 | UK | 10’

Art museum security guards spend their days in uniform, speaking quietly or not at all, surrounded by works of irreplaceable art. It may look easy, but the job requires a stressful degree of responsibility, poise, and silence. Some guards may begin to feel trapped inside their own thoughts, or even inside a painting. The Sleeping Fool presents the stories, dreams and thoughts of those who work behind the walls of an art gallery.