Tacita Dean on Time, Film, and the Ephemeral

Tacita Dean discusses her artistic practice, centered on time, film, and obsolescence. Born in Canterbury in 1965 and now based in Berlin, she has often filmed the sea and aging figures. Her participation in Documenta 13 and her exhibition at the New Museum in New York (May 6–July 1, 2012) mark twenty years of work. Dean emphasizes the physicality of analog film, contrasting it with digital homogeneity. She describes her intuitive method of holding the camera and waiting, without zooms or movement. Films like 'Teignmouth Electron' (1999) explore existential crises and disorientation. She considers her work closer to painting than cinema, focusing on representation rather than narrative. Dean's interest in disappearing things—such as the Kodak factory (film 'Kodak', 2006) or elderly subjects like Cy Twombly and Merce Cunningham—is partly unconscious. 'Craneway Event' (2009) captures Cunningham's rehearsals; Cunningham died as Dean began editing. She values 'ephemera' and 'traces' left on earth. Her move to Berlin shifted her focus from maritime to terrestrial 'shipwrecks'. Writing accompanies her films but is not explanatory; she abandoned voice-over after 'Disappearance at Sea'. Dean's installation 'FILM' (2011) at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall serves as a manifesto for analog cinema, which she fears losing. She calls for public debate on the shift to digital, which she says changes cinema's nature. Recent solo shows include Mumok Vienna (2011) and New Museum New York (2012).