MALCOLM McLAREN
Paris: Capital of the XXIst Century
3 June 2015
The NiNES Peckham
The Performance Studio presented a screening of Malcolm McLaren’s Paris: Capital of the XXIst Century, introduced by writer and curator Paul Gorman in conversation with David Thorp.
Made the year before McLaren’s death in 2010, Paris: Capital of the XXIst Century was his final work. The film is a vibrant collage made exclusively from footage of old French television adverts, narrated by McLaren and accompanied by music from his album Paris and original music from the advertisements themselves.
The Performance Studio screening presented the film in its final form in the UK for the first time.
McLaren described Paris: Capital of the XXIst Century and his earlier film Shallow as “musical paintings”. The film draws upon ideas associated with the Situationist International, alongside Baudelaire’s conception of the flâneur and Guy Debord’s writing on commodity, banality and spectacle.
ABOUT MALCOLM McLAREN
Malcolm McLaren, 1946 to 2010, was an influential creative figure whose work crossed art, music, fashion, film and popular culture.
His engagement with radical visual culture began while attending art school in London during the 1960s. Across the following decades, his practice moved between different cultural forms, taking fashion and music beyond their established contexts and translating them into new formats.
Paris: Capital of the XXIst Century brought together many of these longstanding interests and formed the final work of his career.
IN CONVERSATION
The screening was introduced by writer and curator Paul Gorman in conversation with David Thorp.
Gorman was a friend and biographer of Malcolm McLaren. At the time of the event, he had recently completed Derek Boshier: Rethink/Re Entry, a monograph on the British artist Derek Boshier, and a history of The Face magazine.
Gorman and Thorp were also co curators of Eyes for Blowing Up Bridges, an exhibition tracing the influence of the Situationist International on radical postwar cultural movements including beat, revolution and punk.
The exhibition was due to open at John Hansard Gallery on 22 September 2015.
EVENT DETAILS
3 June 2015
The Nines
Copeland Estate
133 Copeland Road
Peckham, SE15 3SN
SCREENING
Paris: Capital of the XXIst Century
Introduced by Paul Gorman in conversation with David Thorp.
DOCUMENTATION
No photographic documentation of this event is currently available in The Performance Studio archive.