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THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME October 23rd to November 27th 2003 Brighton Parish Church of St. Peter Screening details for the Role of a Lifetime The Role of a Lifetime, is a new film by Deimantas Narkevicius featuring an interview with the controversial film director Peter Watkins. There were regular screenings at Brighton Parish Church of St Peter from 23 October to 27 November from 7.30 to 8.30pm every Tuesday and Thursday evening. The first screenings were held on Thursday 23 from 5.30 to 8.30pm to coincide with the opening of the first Brighton Photography Biennial. There were further screenings on each Saturday afternoon from 5.00 to 6.00pm. Press were invited to attend the first screening on Thursday 23 at 5.30pm. The film's duration is 16 minutes. Screening times: 23 October to 27 November regular screening times special screening times
The Parish Church of St. Peter was built in the 1820s to meet the needs of an expanding urban population. Designed by Charles Barry in the gothic revival style, it is now in need of extensive (and expensive) renovation. Its congregation has dwindled and it finds itself stranded between two busy roads, disconnected from the community it once served. Like many similar churches across the country, St. Peter's faces the challenge of redefining its role in response to social and demographic change, as well as changes in the pattern of religious observance. This is the context with which we were invited to work when Art and Sacred Places asked us to select an artist to undertake a commission for the church. The brief suggested that the artist we selected should be invited to make a 'site specific' response - working with the physical characteristics of the building, or with its context and usage. But St. Peter's presents particular difficulties when considered in this way. It is hard to conceive of an appropriate way of making a physical intervention in its rather austere interior, and any response to its context must address the ambiguity of its contemporary role, the difficulty of identifying a community of users. It became clear that we could not hope to respond to these complexities in any direct or literal way and we became interested in introducing a work which could be 'performed' at certain times without interrupting the regular life of the church. We had encountered Deimantas Narkevicius's work at the Venice Biennale in 2001, and were impressed by its gravity and moral engagement, its ability to make connections between personal history and a wider historical landscape. Narkevicius is interested in the way film works on us, shaping our perception of events, moulding our understanding of the world, and he is increasingly interested in the conventions used by filmmakers to construct documentary 'reality'. This is Narkevicius's first commission in the UK, and also the first occasion that he has been asked to respond to a situation that has no direct connection with his own lived experience. He has approached this challenge not by making his own commentary, but by borrowing the perspectives of others - a Brighton amateur and a distinguished film director - both of whom have engaged with history through the medium of film. The Role of a Lifetime combines three distinct elements. The first is an interview with the British filmmaker Peter Watkins, recorded in Lithuania where Watkins lived for many years in the course of his self-imposed exile from Britain. The second is a sequence of drawings of the Lithuanian landscape, some depicting an unusual theme park, Gruto Park, repository of Social Realist sculptures from the post-war era. The third comprises footage of Brighton life, shot by an amateur film enthusiast and deposited in the South East Film and Video Archive in Brighton. Narkevicius's construction of the film unites these disparate components, relating sound and image to produce a strangely compelling play between Watkins's commentary and the imagery on the screen. Narkevicius's work may be seen as engaging with a search for meaning. In the context of St. Peter's The Role of a Lifetime might be understood as a metaphor of our activity as ethical beings, reflecting the fragmented nature of contemporary experience and our unquenchable desire to make sense of the world. St. Peter's provides the fourth element in the construction of this work of art - as yet unpredictable in its influence on our understanding of Narkevicius's work, but certainly a potent ingredient in the process of its evolution. Teresa Gleadowe and Paul Barratt The artist, curator and commissioner would like
to express their gratitude for the support given to this project by Arts
Council England, Fondation de France and Visiting Arts. Research was provided
by South East Film and Video Archive and technical support by Mites and
MBI sound and light.
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