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Douglas Gordon

I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person

October 3–7, 2017
Britannia Street, London

Installation view Artwork © Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017. Photo: Miriam Perez

Installation view

Artwork © Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017. Photo: Miriam Perez

Installation view Artwork © Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017. Photo: Miriam Perez

Installation view

Artwork © Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017. Photo: Miriam Perez

Installation view Artwork © Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017. Photo: Miriam Perez

Installation view

Artwork © Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017. Photo: Miriam Perez

Works Exhibited

Douglas Gordon, I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person, 2016 (still) Super 8 film and video transferred to digital video, color, sound, 97 min.© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Douglas Gordon, I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person, 2016 (still)

Super 8 film and video transferred to digital video, color, sound, 97 min.
© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Douglas Gordon, I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person, 2016 (stills) Super 8 film and video transferred to digital video, color, sound, 97 min.© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Douglas Gordon, I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person, 2016 (stills)

Super 8 film and video transferred to digital video, color, sound, 97 min.
© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Douglas Gordon, I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person, 2016 (still) Super 8 film and video transferred to digital video, color, sound, 97 min.© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

Douglas Gordon, I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person, 2016 (still)

Super 8 film and video transferred to digital video, color, sound, 97 min.
© Studio lost but found/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

About

I met Jonas when he was still a young man. I think he was 75 years old. . . . I was intrigued with Jonas from the first moment I met him, maybe from the first thirtieth of a second or the first twenty-fourth of a second that I met him. That’s where my intrigue comes from.
—Douglas Gordon

Long before I met Douglas I met his films and they were exciting. I like them because they are so different from what I or anyone else is doing. His films open a totally new invisible window full of visual excitement. And I like Douglas himself, because he’s always 200 percent himself, and is always unpredictable, like his films.
—Jonas Mekas

During Frieze London, from October 3 through 7, Gagosian Britannia Street will screen Douglas Gordon’s 2016 film I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person. The film is a portrait of Jonas Mekas, the legendary artist, filmmaker, poet, curator, and godfather of American avant-garde cinema. At ninety-five years old, Mekas is among the few remaining survivors of Nazi persecution.

Recently shown at documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel, as well as at numerous film festivals, I had nowhere to go has been celebrated for its poignant materiality and its reflection on the narrative of history. Gordon’s film work has redefined expectations of the relationship between sound, text, time, and the moving image—as in his 1993 film 24 Hour Psycho, which stretched the duration of Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) from the traditional feature film length of 109 minutes to twenty-four hours.

By contrast, I had nowhere to go proceeds with one minute of real time per year of Mekas’s momentous life, from fleeing his native Lithuania, to his time in forced labor camps and a displaced persons center during the Second World War, to his eventual arrival in New York, and beyond. The viewer is plunged into collective and individual spaces of memory via long, imageless stretches over which Mekas narrates excerpts from his memoir (from which the film takes its title). With its immersive sound environment and intermittent, fleeting images that are evocatively juxtaposed with Mekas’s anecdotes, Gordon’s film reveals in its subject a puckish humor that outweighs despair, and a redemptive curiosity for life in the face of adversity.

Douglas Gordon: I had nowhere to go

Douglas Gordon: I had nowhere to go

Featuring an extensive interview with Douglas Gordon on the process of making his 2016 film I had nowhere to go: Portrait of a displaced person, this video, produced by Berlin Art Link, includes clips of Jonas Mekas and revealing anecdotes about the creation of the film.

Installation view with Douglas Gordon, Pretty much every film and video work from about 1992 until now... (1999–)

Douglas Gordon: To Sing

On the occasion of Douglas Gordon: All I need is a little bit of everything, an exhibition in London, curator Adam Szymczyk recounts his experiences with Gordon’s work across nearly three decades, noting the continuities and evolutions.

still from video of eyeball

Douglas Gordon: if when why what

Douglas Gordon took over the Piccadilly Lights advertising screen in London’s Piccadilly Circus, as well as a global network of screens in cities including Berlin, Melbourne, Milan, New York, and Seoul, nightly for three minutes at 20:22 (8:22pm) throughout December 2022, with his new film, if when why what (2018–22). The project was presented by the Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Art (CIRCA) in conjunction with the exhibition Douglas Gordon: Neon Ark at Gagosian, Davies Street, London.

Douglas Gordon

Douglas Gordon

Katrina Brown discusses the importance of Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho (1993) and some of the films that followed, touching on threads that run throughout the artist’s career.

Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2018

Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2018

The Spring 2018 Gagosian Quarterly with a cover by Ed Ruscha is now available for order.

Douglas Gordon and Morgane Tschiember

Douglas Gordon and Morgane Tschiember

Douglas Gordon and Morgane Tschiember’s installation As close as you can for as long as it lasts, presented during Elevation 1049: Avalanche in Gstaad, Switzerland.