[Depot premiere] Douglas Gordon's Film ‘Portrait of Janus (divided states)’ streaming live on loveyourdepot.com

Monday 28th December, 2020 starting at 9pm *This Film is streamed twice at 9pm for both KST and BST

Commissioned by Locus+ with support from the Korean Cultural Centre UK Locus+ and Void presents Douglas Gordon's Portrait of Janus (divided states), the newly produced film with live performance by Okkyung Lee and in conversation with David Holmes

The Scottish artist Douglas Gordon's new work investigates the real and subconscious notions of boundaries, from the divided self to enforced geographical and political borders. The film uses the demarcation line of Korea’s Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the strip of land separating North and South Korea, to trace a literal and metaphorical boundary. The work, Portrait of Janus (divided states) 2017, tracks the DMZ border being tattooed vertically along the spine of a young Korean man, Janus Hoon Jang. The film follows the tattooist’s needle moving down and across his skin and the motifs of the political and personal jar in a private act that is both tender and violent. The delicately balanced contradictions of the emerging image and it's meanings are haunted in real time by Okkyung Lee's improvised accompaniment; a keening, in fact.

Douglas Gordon (born 1966) is a Scottish artist. He won the Turner Prize in 1996, the Premio 2000 at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997 and the Hugo Boss Prize in 1998, among others. In 2012, Gordon became a Commandeur dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, awarded the title by the French Cultural Minister in Berlin on behalf of the French Republic. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Okkyung Lee (born 1975) is a South Korean cellist, improvisor and composer. She has collaborated with a range of musicians and artists including Laurie Anderson, Christian Marclay, Thurston Moore and John Zorn. She is based in New York, USA.
Janus Hoon Jang, adopted by a Danish couple, often returns to Korea to research his family history. He currently lives in Copenhagen, Denmark.
David Holmes (born 1969) is a Northern Irish electronic musician and composer. Originally a DJ he has since remixed and produced records for others as well as composing scores for TV and film. Holmes's film project Good Vibrations, tells the story of Terri Hooley and the record shop at the heart of the punk rock scene of 1970s Belfast.