Nicky Coutts

Passing Place is a film set at a remote crossroads in Northumberland. Scenes from six feature films, where significant moments occur at crossroads, are re-enacted by local people who live or work nearby and know the location well. Scenes are revisited from Oedipus Rex, (Paolo Pasolini, 1967); Down By Law, (Jim Jarmusch 1986); Cool Hand Luke (Stuart Rosenberg, 1967); Castaway, (Robert Zemeckis 2000); Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, (Maya Deren, 1985) and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, (Luis Buñuel, 1972). People come and go, hide from the law, kill each other, perform rituals and choose paths. The actors play themselves alongside the characters they adopt, a community re-fictioning and re-occupying their locality.

Passing Place was exhibited as part of Coutts’s solo exhibitions ‘Some Other Time’ (see publication) at Highgreen, Tarset (2008), ‘Change of Heart’, Queen’s Hall, Hexham (2009) and ‘Millions Like Us’ at Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art, London (2010). The work was selected for ‘New Cinema and Contemporary Art’, by Les Rencontres Internationales for screenings and debate at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010); Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid (2011) and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2011). The film was also selected by ArtSway, SCAN and Animate Projects for the exhibition ‘Multichannel: Variable Economies’ (2009) and was shown in a group exhibition, ‘Ha Gamle Prestegard’, Havegen, Naerbo, Norway (2009). It was also reviewed by Beatriz Martínez for Cahiers du Cinéma, Espana (2011).

See feature article on Passing Place in The Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ) here