This program, Post Attitude，is not about providing answers but about asking questions—questions that dismantle, provoke, and challenge. Through the interplay of images and music, we invite you to step into a labyrinth where rules are subverted, meanings are unraveled, and linear narratives dissolve into fragmented possibilities. These films embody the core ethos of postmodernism and post-punk: deconstruction and rebellion. With each frame, they dismantle identities, social norms, and unshakable frameworks, replacing certainty with ambiguity and order with chaos. Here, rebellion is not destruction for its own sake but a search for new ways of understanding the world and ourselves.
The program opens with Vanda Carter’s I.con (1995), a strikingly introspective piece that explores the interplay between identity and societal constructs. Rendered in stark black-and-white animation, I.con serves as a postmodern meditation, rejecting fixed meanings and deconstructing the symbols and myths that dominate collective consciousness. Drawing from Jacques Derrida’s theory of deconstruction, the film dismantles the inherent in societal narratives, exposing the instability of meaning and the power structures embedded in symbols. As Carter poetically asks, “From somewhere in the darkness – beyond their meanings and their myths, their tired old symbols and false gods… do you hear another voice, a different tune to dance to?” This rhetorical invocation aligns with postmodern aesthetics, where pastiche and fragmentation replace traditional structures. By beginning with this film, we invite the audience to follow Carter’s poetic inquiry into the core ethos of postmodernism: deconstruction as liberation.
Next, Virgil Widrich’s Copy Shop (2001) delves deeper into a key manifestation of postmodern society: alienation. Using the metaphor of a photocopier’s infinite reproduction, the film highlights the erosion of individual identity in an age of relentless replication. Through humor and thought-provoking imagery, Widrich captures the fragility of identity and the dominance of symbolic systems in contemporary society. As the protagonist’s self becomes increasingly blurred amidst the endless copies, viewers are prompted to question their place in a world where the distinction between original and replica has all but vanished. This critique of the symbolic systems that shape identity creates a meaningful dialogue with I.con.
Dean Wei’s Where Do Ants Sleep at Sleep? (2023) transforms the theme of alienation into a vivid narrative of resistance. Combining modern dance and cinematic language, the film depicts workers, likened to ants, trapped in repetitive and mechanical labor. Their monotony reflects Michel Foucault’s theories of power and discipline, illustrating how modern society subtly shapes individual behavior and subjectivity. However, the sudden intrusion of a pigeon disrupts this orderly cycle, creating an absurd and destabilizing moment that shatters the illusion of control. This uninvited disruption becomes a metaphor for rebellion, representing a crack in the rigid system that invites defiance and reawakens the human spirit.
Just as the pigeon’s intrusion forces the workers to confront a choice about their fate, this pivotal moment symbolizes the program’s transition from postmodern explorations of alienation to the rebellious energy of post-punk. It vividly demonstrates how disruption can ignite change, becoming the starting point for untamed defiance. The next two short films, Andrew Kötting’s Klipperty Klopp (1984) and Vivienne Dick’s Guerillere Talks (1978), embody this post-punk spirit, using chaos, challenge, and uninhibited creativity to deconstruct artistic boundaries, social structures, and identity.
Kötting’s Klipperty Klopp epitomizes the post-punk aesthetic through its avant-garde approach and subversion of conventional storytelling. The film’s deliberate use of dilapidated-looking stock and chaotic imagery aligns with the post-punk movement’s rejection of polished production in favor of raw, unfiltered expression. This aesthetic critiques the commodification of art in mainstream media, positioning Klipperty Klopp as a radical departure from traditional cinematic forms. By embracing “mock primitivism,” Kötting challenges audiences to reconsider the boundaries of art and the role of chaos in creative expression.
Vivienne Dick’s Guerillere Talks offers a feminist lens within the post-punk framework, presenting a series of unedited Super 8 sound footage rolls profiling women associated with the punk music scene. Each segment functions as a screen test, portraying the subjects in their everyday activities while showcasing diverse expressions of female identity. By juxtaposing examples of female self-definition against the backdrop of a decaying social order, the film critiques the male gaze pervasive in traditional cinema and aligns with post-punk’s ethos of subverting dominant cultural narratives.
From questioning singular truths to challenging fixed identities, these films open a space for deeper dialogue about self and society. The live music performance that follows will extend this spirit, allowing the echoes of these images to resonate in sound.Tonight, together, let us embrace the aesthetics of chaos and the vitality of rebellion, transforming them into an art form that transcends boundaries.As participants—not mere spectators—we conspire in the act of deconstruction, creating a shared experience that celebrates the power of questioning over the finality of answers.