The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin)
C.W. Winter & Anders Edström | 2020 | USA, Sweden, Japan, UK | 480’ | digital
The immersive durational experience of a long-form work such as The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) not only requires the in-person conditions of being in the cinema, but also emphasizes the communal viewing experience. This eight-hour epic was shot over a fourteen-month period in a small, rural community in the Shiotani Basin, a short train ride from Kyoto. It is the second collaboration of C.W. Winter and Anders Edström, following on from their acclaimed debut The Anchorage.
“It is a geographic look at the work and non-work of a farmer. A description, over five seasons, of a family, of a terrain, of a sound space, and of a passage of time. A georgic in five books.” (C.W Winter and Anders Edström)
“More than a film to watch, The Works and Days is a film that engulfs you.” (Erika Balsom)
The Works and Days is a single film with a 480-minute (8-hour) run time. The film will be shown in its entirety with three intermissions: two 15-minute pauses at roughly 1/4 and 3/4 of the way through the film and a longer intermission halfway through. This makes for a total viewing experience of approximately 9 1/2 hours.
In partnership with the Embassy of Sweden in London
Followed by a conversation between C.W. Winter, Anders Edström and George Clark.
C.W. Winter was born in Newport Beach, California. He is currently a Lecturer at the University of Oxford and a Visiting Tutor at the Royal College of Art. He completed his DPhil in Art Practice & Theory as a Clarendon Scholar at The Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford. He received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts where he studied closely under Thom Andersen, James Benning, and Allan Sekula. His writing has appeared in Cinema Scope, Moving Image Source, Purple, and Too Much. He lives in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Anders Edström was born in Frösö, Sweden. His work is widely published and has exhibited at such venues as the Musée d’art moderne (Paris), the Centre Pompidou, and the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt. He was among the first and most influential photographers from the early days of Purple journal. For a decade beginning in 1991, he closely collaborated with Martin Margiela. He has released five books including Hanezawa Garden (MACK Books, 2015), Safari (Nieves, 2010), and Waiting Some Birds a Bus a Woman / Spidernets Places a Crew (SteidlMACK, 2004). He lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
George Clark is an artist, writer and curator. His work explores the history of images and how they are governed by culture, technology and social political conditions. Recent projects have sought to build new models of assembly, exhibition and moving image production. His films have been exhibited at museums and festivals internationally including New York Film Festival, Berwick Film and Media Art Festival, Hanoi Doclab, Taiwan Biennale, AV Festival (Newcastle), International Film Festival Rotterdam, Yunsun Museum, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art / MMCA, Seoul, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, LA Film Forum, Museo de Artes Visuales / MAVI among others. He is co-founder of the West Java West Yorkshire Cooperative Movement with Ismal Muntaha, Bunga Siagian and Will Rose, a collaborative platform with Jatiwangi Art Factory and Pavilion. Their latest project, Mother Bank is a micro-finance redistribution initiative working with Wysing Arts Centre to build financial autonomy for mother collective in rural Indonesia. His curatorial projects for museums, galleries, cinemas and festivals focus on broadening the histories of film and video practice globally. He has curated projects for museums, galleries, cinemas, and festivals with a focus on broadening the histories of film and video practice globally. He teaches at University of Westminster and Royal College of Art.
The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin) is the second feature from C.W. Winter & Anders Edström. The film won the Golden Bear for Best Film in the Encounters competition at the 2020 Berlinale. It is the follow-up to their film, The Anchorage, which won the Filmmakers of the Present Golden Leopard for Best Film at Locarno Film Festival and won the Douglas E. Edwards Independent/Experimental Film/Video Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Their film/video work has shown at such venues as the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), Centre national de la photographie (Paris), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Fotomuseum Winterthur, NRW-Forum (Düsseldorf), the Harvard Film Archive, Anthology Film Archives, the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus), Centre de cultura contemporània de Barcelona, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and the National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto).