SELECTED FILM & VIDEO

TEXT

NEWS

BIO

DISTRIBUTION

ATLANTROPA

COLLABORATION

ESPERI

FALLING LEAVES

JARMARK EUROPA

MONUMENT

PASSAGE

SIN PAPELES

UNITE D'HABITATION

ZUBR

The visual language established in Stevens' work presents the audience with critical yet often poetic forms in film, video and photography. Recurrent themes connect visual codes of landscape, borders and migration with more orthodox forms of documentation and reportage such as journalism and political dogma.

His short films have been exhibited internationally including the Whitechapel Gallery, 10th Istanbul Biennial, Tapei Museum of Modern Art, Serpentine Cinema, OVNI, Barcelona and Frieze film. His most recent film Atlantropa commissioned by Film London won Best False Fiction Jury Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival 2010. Stevens has also contributed to various publications such as Fresh Moves (Thames & Hudson) and Eight Metaphors (Lux) and has published two limited DVD/Book sets When I Sit Down to Write and Three Films on Language.

 

 

 

 

Samuel Stevens, Unite d'Habitation (film still) Samuel Stevens, Unite d'Habitation (film still)
Samuel Stevens, Unite d'Habitation (film still) Samuel Stevens, Unite d'Habitation (film still)
Unité d'Habitation, 2' 57'', DVCAM, Berlin, 2004
The film was shot in the grounds of the one of Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation That was built in Berlin in 1959. Literally meaning "Housing Union" or "Housing Unit" the Unite project sought to create housing to eleviate the postwar housing shortage but also incorporated Le Corborsier's vision for communal living by housing all the ammenities needed for life in these 'vertical villages'. The design of the building is typical with it's striking angular lines and bold facade. The film draws on the contrast between this aspiring archetectural style and the humility of one resident who pauses for a moment to reflect on the world outside.