Dan Graham, Rock my Religion (video stills), 1983 © Dan Graham
Rock my Religion – 30th Anniversary
A discussion between Dan Graham and Lydia Lunch
3.8 2013
Stockholm
STOCKHOLM SATURDAY 3 AUGUST 2013 AT 2 PM
When: 3 August at 2 pm
Where: The Auditorium, Moderna Museet
Tickets: Please note! Limited seats. Admission free with ticket to Music & Arts (150 p) and for visitors to the museum (150 p). No pre-booking.
Dan Graham is famous for his glass pavilions, which he has been creating since the 1960s. One of his exquisite and intricate pavilions, Pavilion Sculpture II (1984), is installed in the Tyghusgången passage between Moderna Museet and Östasiatiska Museet.
New York-based Lydia Lunch will be appearing with her new band at the festival. She is a singer, poet, author and actor. Lydia Lunch broke new ground with her seminal band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, as part of the late-1970s No Wave scene and has continued to deliver provocative and confrontational performances since then.
Moderated by Elena Tzotzi. Tzotzi is part of the team behind Signal, a centre for contemporary art in Malmö, which features exhibitions, lectures, etc focusing on the production of contemporary art and culture.
About Rock my Religion
Rock My Religion (1982-84) was produced with funding from Moderna Museet, when Dan Graham was one of several artists invited to participate in the now legendary exhibition Vanishing Points in 1983-84, curated by the former museum director, Olle Granath. Rock My Religion is a cult movie, largely due to its famous cast and its message which delivers an analysis of society. The rock musician, artist and poet Patti Smith was the main protagonist. You can read more about the material around the film in Dan Graham’s book Rock Writings, on sale in the Moderna Museet Shop during the festival. The music for Rock My Religion is by Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, who formed the band Sonic Youth in 1981. The tracks featured in the film are Shaking Hell and Brother James. Glenn Branca has contributed the track Theme for a Drive through Suburbia.
Dan Graham’s film proposes the idea that rock music evolved as a new kind of religion, and he bases his comparison on the puritanical shakers. Followers of the shaker faith achieved a state of trance through expressive movement that sometimes led to talking in tongues. In the film, images of shakers are interwoven with images of musicians who performed with sexy and occasionally violent abandon on stage in the 1950s and onwards. Comparisons are drawn between talking in tongues and the heartfelt singing of an ecstatic rock musician.
Rock My Religion is part of Moderna Museet’s film and video collection. Duration: 55 minutes. The film Rock my Religion in the Cinema 2–4 August 2013 at 10.30-17.30
Event curator: Catrin Lundqvist
The event is organised jointly with Stockholm Music & Arts.