GILES ROUND AND MARK AERIAL WALLER WITH RODEO GALLERY PRESENT 'SIMON AND THE RADIOACTIVE FLESH' IN ATHENS

Sylvia Kouvali, Mark Aerial Waller, Giles Round


Sylvia Kouvali dancing to the Radioactive Flesh


Stuart Comer, Sylvia Kouvali and Willem de Rooij

SIMON AND THE RADIOACTIVE FLESH
A film and intermittent art video screening that transcends into a purgatorial nightclub setting.

Simon and the Radioactive Flesh uses Luis Buñuel's 45 minute film 'Simon del Desierto' of an ascetic, Simon (played by Claudio Brook), a devotee of Simon Stylites, who proclaims his faith through standing on a column in the desert. The devil (played by Silvia Pinal) visits on several occasions to lure him from his duty, eventually succeeding in transposing him to purgatory; an existential beat nightclub in 1960's New York. In this reworking of the original film, each time the devil appears the narrative is interrupted by the insertion of a contemporary video art work. The interruptions continue throughout the film until finally we too are spatially interrupted, finding ourselves in a parallel to the purgatorial nightclub setting of the film's last dance, Carne Radioactivo (the Radioactive Flesh).

Artists' videos in running order:
Sophie Brown & Catherine Evelid / It's Time to Give In, Bernhard Willhelm & Dirk Bonn / The Rose, Pablo Bronstein / Trojan Horse, Benjamin Callaway / Plane, Omer Ali Kazma / She has had it, Mark Leckey / We are (untitled), Assume Vivid Astro Focus/ Relevee.