Blue is a manifesto for the right to life and fair treatment for every human being, revealing the dynamics of a society that lacks empathy and of an unjust and discriminatory social system. Through this cinematic meditation, contained in the sensibility of a single color, Derek Jarman exposes his own vulnerability and inner turmoil in his struggle with illness and death.
Referencing Yves Klein’s blue and the multiple meta-significancies the artist attributes to this color (”Blue of my heart”, ”Blue of my dreams”, ”Blue love”, ”Blue transcends the solemn geography of human limits”, ”The blood of sensibility is blue”), Blue reveals key moments in Jarman’s life – the first stirrings of love, the discovery of his own queer sexuality, fear of authorities, the hostile social environment, the struggle with HIV, the imminence of death and … the serenity of blue. The infinite, the abyss, but also the possibility of inner peace.
As a space in which Jarman blurs the line between autobiography and observation, the film pushes the boundaries of cinematic expression, confronting us with a blue screen accompanied by a layered soundscape of voices, music and lyrical dialogue. In the seamless blending of these elements, Blue becomes a complex sensory experience and a necessary encounter, traversing lyrical, diaristic, philosophical and dialogical dimensions that often expand and overlap. However, Blue never descends completely into solemnity, always keeping a streak of grotesque humor and righteous indignation, it is at once a documentation of queer suffering and a poetic and intimate mapping of the artist’s inner world.
Derek Jarman presents the reality of AIDS symptoms and medication side effects, cultural and political oppression and blindness, and the reality of friends disappearing and body fading. But what makes Jarman’s work so important is that, aesthetically, it engages all forms of representation in the process of overpowering the sexualized iconography of queer people.
The exhibition Blue | Derek Jarman at META Spațiu is a chronicle of fear and sexual repression, the devastation caused by illness, and Jarman’s inimitable courage and grace, a biography and an honest tribute to Derek Jarman’s uncompromising life and art.
Derek Jarman (1942-1994), Britain’s most controversial filmmaker and director, was also gifted writer, artist, gardener, designer and outspoken AIDS and gay rights activist. Jarman’s story stretches from his childhood in post-war Britain to his art school days at the Slade School of Art and the making of numerous acclaimed films, including Sebastiane (1975), Jubilee (1978), The Angelic Conversation (1985), Caravaggio (1986), The Last of England (1987), The Garden (1990), and Edward II (1991). His final film, Blue, was first shown at the Biennale Arte, Venice, in 1993 and simultaneously broadcast on Channel 3, being featured now in the collection of the world’s most prestigious museums, having previously been exhibited in international galleries and art centres – MoMA, Tate, David Zwirner, Serpentine etc. Jarman also wrote several books, including the autobiographical Dancing Ledge (1984) and two volumes of memoirs, Modern Nature (1991) and At Your Own Risk (1992). Derek Jarman’s Garden, which documents the creation of his extraordinary garden at Dungeness, Kent, England was published in 1995. A major retrospective of Jarman’s work titled PROTEST! was mounted at IMMA, Dublin and the Manchester Art Gallery in 2021/2, describing him as “One of the most influential figures in twentieth-century British culture”.
Exhibition: Blue | Derek Jarman at META Spațiu
Exhibition duration: 17.05.-27.07.2024
Curated by: Mirela Stoeac-Vlăduți
META Spațiu
Address: google pinpoint META Spațiu
B-dul Mihai Viteazu nr. 1, Timișoara, Romania
www.metaspatiu.art
Tel: + 40 758 014 015
META Spațiu was founded in 2016 by Mirela Stoeac-Vlăduți together with the French artist Josépha Blanchet, a hybrid organization that functions both as an independent contemporary art gallery and as a cultural association. META Spațiu, based in Timișoara, Romania, develops contemporary art projects supporting and presenting the work of Romanian and international artists, with the intention of providing an insightful perspective on the art scene in Central and Eastern Europe. Until 2022, when it moved to its own space, META Spațiu operated as an ethereal art space, „parasitizing“ other spaces – museums, galleries, public spaces – with the aim of developing collaborations, in the medium and long term, with other artistic entities and to actively contribute to the promotion of contemporary art and artists in various contexts.
