AV Festival 14 Explores Material Extraction Through Metal and Stone Exhibitions

The AV Festival 14, a biennial program in northeast England, featured two thematic exhibitions exploring material extraction. Metal at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art examined raw materials and global capitalism through five artists. Works included Hito Steyerl's 2010 video Strike showing a flatscreen television being menaced, Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc's 2012 film An Italian Film (Africa Addio) depicting colonial-era copper recasting, and Walead Beshty's 2009 20-Inch Copper series with sculptures damaged during FedEx transit. Anja Kirschner & David Panos's 2012 film Ultimate Substance connected ancient slavery to material production. Stone at Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art in Sunderland addressed environmental impact with ten artists. Gabriel Orozco's 2012 video Boulder Hand showed hand-polishing stone, while Thiago Rocha Pitta's 2011 video Danae nos jardins de górgona ou saudades da Pangeia documented sap-like substance flowing over rocks. Yuri Ancarani's 2010 film Il Capo portrayed quarry workers, and Harun Farocki's 2007 film Transmission examined pilgrimage sites using natural stone. The festival included solo presentations: Jessica Warboys at Laing Art Gallery, Rossella Biscotti & Kevin van Braak in a Middlesbrough Railway Station shopfront, and Anna Molska's 2009 film The Weavers at Newcastle's Mining Institute depicting Polish miners with lines from an 1892 play. The article originally appeared in Summer 2014.