Martin Hampton’s Film On Joan Miró

Created by Martin Hampton for the current exhibition at Tate Modern in London: ‘Joan Miró, The Ladder of Escape‘ which runs from the 14 April – 11 September 2011.

The film explores Joan Miró’s life and working practice, beginning at his family’s farm in Montroig, Catalonia, a sanctuary for him throughout his life and the source of much of his artistic inspiration. Guided by Miró’s grandson and the curators from Tate Modern, the film visits his complex of studios and workshops overlooking the sea near Palma, Mallorca, where he moved after the Second World War and where he worked prolifically until his death at the age of 93. It includes rare material from films by Pere Portabella and Català Roca of Miró at work, and testimonials from friends who remember him as a remarkably generous and humble man.

Joan Miro @ Tate Modern – A film by Martin Hampton

Joan Miró, The Ladder of Escape‘ runs from the 14 April – 11 September 2011 @ Tate Modern, London.

Music by Emu Masuyama
Directed, Filmed and Edited by Martin Hampton
Executive Producers; Jane Burton and Kate Vogel @ Tate Media

Flat Home

Created for the Not Applicable Artists Festival in Berlin this summer by Martin Hampton (shot in and around his native Somerset, navigating the shores of the Bristol Channel and further afield), Flat Home received two screenings with different combinations of instrumentalists improvising to it on each night. The resulting soundtrack is a hybrid of the two:

Flat Home – A film by Martin Hampton

Music improvised to the film on two successive nights during the Not Applicable Artists Festival of Experimental Music and Film, Berlin 2010.

Finnlandzentrum – Tuesday 7th September 2010

Stevko Busch – piano
Lothar Ohlmeier – bass clarinet
Tom Arthurs – trumpet
Isambard Khroustaliov – computer

Babette – Wednesday 8th September 2010

Tobias Klein – bass clarinet
Kai Wolff – computer
Roy Caroll – electronics
Lothar Ohlmeier – bass clarinet
Maurizio Ravalico – percussion
Rudi Fischerlehner – drumkit
Tom Arthurs – trumpet
Isambard Khroustaliov – computer

Recorded and mixed by Isambard Khroustaliov.
Music edited by Isambard Khroustaliov with Martin Hampton.

Gentle Oblivion

Martin Hampton will be screening a film from a project he’s been working on for the past few months about memory loss, called Gentle Oblivion. In his words:

“It’s a portrait of my half sister Jacqueline, who since being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 6 years ago, has lived more or less alone in the mountains of Provence. The stigma attached to the term Alzheimer’s Disease invokes fear and panic. As life expectancy continues to rise at a rate of 5 hours a day it becomes ever more probable that we will experience dementia ourselves. But if we treat this gradual slide out of reason as a natural phase of life, perhaps as the symmetrical counterpoint to infancy, might we become less afraid to plan for, and more willing to adapt to, the life changes it demands?"

Gentle Oblivion – a film by Martin Hampton – duration 35mins

Friday April 9th and Saturday April 10th @ 9pm

Cinema Space,
Shunt Vaults,
20 Stainer Street
London SE1 9RL

020 7378 7776