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Alejandro Jodorowsky's ‘Dune’: An exhibition of a film of a book that never was 17 September – 25 October 2009 Alejandro Jodorowsky's ‘Dune’: An exhibition of a film of a book that never was takes as its departure point the cult Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s attempted 1976 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel ‘Dune’.
This exhibition includes production drawings made by Moebius, H.R Giger and Chris Foss alongside commissioned work made in response by three international contemporary artists Steven Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon. Following the release of his mystical Western ‘El Topo’ (1970) and his psychedelic quest movie ‘Holy Mountain’, Jodorowsky embarked on his ‘Dune’ project, gathering around him a group of collaborators that included the French comics artist Moebius, the Swiss artist H.R. Giger (who would later design the 1979 film ‘Alien’), the British sci-fi artist Chris Foss, and the British band Pink Floyd, who would provide the soundtrack. Among Jodorowsky’s proposed cast were Orson Welles, Mick Jagger and Salvador Dali, the last of whom was to play the Emperor of the Universe, who ruled from a golden toilet-cum-throne in the shape of two intertwined dolphins. Unable to secure the money from Hollywood to create the ‘Dune’ of his imagination, Jodorowsky abandoned the film before a single frame was shot. All that survives of this project is Jodorowsky’s extensive notes, and the production drawings of Moebius, Giger and Foss. These reveal a potential future for sci-fi movie making that eschewed the conservative, technology-based approach of American filmmakers in favour of something closer to a metaphysical fever-dream. This was, though, a future that would never take place. In 1977, George Lucas’ ‘Star Wars’ was released, and the history of sci-fi filmmaking, and even mainstream cinema, would never be the same again.
H.R Giger, Dune IV, 1976 © 1976 H. R. Giger Dune’s themes of jihad, resource war and environmental degradation are especially pertinent to our current political moment and the exhibition also seeks to explore the notion of adaptation and counterfactual histories of film. The exhibition brings together production drawings for ‘Dune,’ alongside new works by Steve Claydon, Matthew Day Jackson and Vidya Gastaldon developed in reaction to Jodorowsky’s notes on ‘Dune’ - an extraordinary mixture of mystical pronouncement, philosophical speculation on the nature of authorship, cultural criticism and ‘70s film world gossip. Steven Claydon uses a range of media to explore moments in history and draw provocative connotations between contemporary social concerns and obsolete ideologies. Matthew Day Jackson makes paintings, drawings and sculptures that tackle America’s colonial past and its environmentally rapacious present. Vidya Gastaldon creates sculptures, drawings, video animations and prints which explore the neverland between fantasy and reality in works which are microcosms of hallucinatory, saccharine symbols. The project is guest-curated by Tom Morton, Curator at The Hayward, London, Co-curator of The British Art Show 7 (2010 -11), and Contributing Editor, frieze magazine.
The exhibition tours to Plymouth Arts Centre 3 April – 16 May 2010.
Tom Morton 'In Conversation' with Brian Dillon Brian Dillon is a writer and critic and UK editor of Cabinet magazine. His writing has appeared in The London Review of Books, The New Statesman, Modern Painters, frieze, Art Review and The Wire. His first book, ‘In the Dark Room’, won the Irish Book Awards non-fiction prize, 2006. His latest book is ‘Tormented Hope: Nine Hypochondriac Lives’ (2009). Event is free but booking is essential. Steven Claydon was born in 1969 & lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include 2009: Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan; 2008: HOTEL, London, Independent Project Space, Bourneville, Birmingham, Galerie Dennis Kimmerich, Düsseldorf. Group exhibitions: 2008: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London; ‘Strange Events Permit Themselves the Luxury of Occurring’, curated by Claydon for Camden Arts Centre, London; 2006: ‘Pale Carnage’, Arnolfini, Bristol; 2007: ‘Rings of Saturn’, Tate Modern, London.
Matthew Day Jackson was born in 1974 Panorama City, CA and lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions: 2008: Peter Blum Chelsea, Manhattan, NY & Nicole Klagsbrun, Manhattan, NY; 2007: Perry Rubenstein Gallery, Manhattan, NY & Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, 2007. Recent Group Exhibitions: 2008: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX; Barbican Gallery, London, UK & Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands: 2006: Museum Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; Serpentine Gallery, London, UK, Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland; Whitney Biennial, NY. Vidya Gastaldon was born in 1974, Besançon, France and lives in Geneva. Recent solo exhibitions: 2008: New Art Gallery, Walsall Museum, Walsall, UK ; 2007: Swiss Institut, NY, USA; Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich, CH; Atelier Hermès , Séoul, Corée du Sud; Hiromi Yoshii, Tokyo, Japan; 2006: Kunstmuseum de Thun, CH; 2005: Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Genèva, CH. Recent Group Exhibitions: 2008:CNAI (Centre National de l’Estampe et de l’Art Imprimé), Chatou, F ; Musée Jenisch, Vevey, CH; Kunsthaus, Zürich, CH ; Foundation Salomon, Annecy, F ; 2007: Villa Arson, Nice ;Centre d’édition contemporaine, BAC, Genèva, CH ;Marres Art Centre, Maastricht ; National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC), Bucharest; 2006: Grand Palais, Paris.
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The Elephant Trust 
