ICA Re-Enacts Battleship Potemkin

London - Saturday November 26, 2011 on the Mall, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) will offer a remarkable event by re-staging the famous Odessa Staircase sequence from Sergei Eisenstein’s seminal 1925 film, Battleship Potemkin. The film-loving art collector of Art Kabinett network is already lining up for this one. Just be sure to stay out of the line of fire and catch the plummeting pram. The Tsar’s rifles, the people, the panic and the bouncing baby carriage will all be there -- maybe even including a screaming tot, and peasant massacre! The location, just around the corner from the ICA on the Duke of York’s Steps, the perfect location for such a re-enactment. Today's Featured Video provides the original cinema montage. Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925, 73 mins.) is a dramatized account of a mutiny by oppressed sailors on board a Russian warship. Its bold visual compositions and provocative storytelling made it an instant classic; eight decades later, it still stands as a powerful propaganda piece and a stunning work of avant-garde filmmaking. The film is divided into five sections. However, from a purely artistic standpoint, the Odessa Staircase sequence is the most successful of the five, with images that are startling, vibrant and unforgettable. From the shot of the legless man fleeing down the stairs to the bereaved mother with her dead child in her arms, to the much imitated and parodied shot of the basinet bouncing down the stairs, this sequence is memorable from beginning to end. Eisenstein, aside from having a great eye for composing shots, also demonstrates considerable economy in terms of editing. There is not a single wasted shot in either the sequence or the film as a whole; every shot is important in terms of moving the plot forward and making the film’s political point. Battleship Potemkin is, first and foremost, a propaganda movie meant to vilify the Tsarist regime and glorify Communist revolutionaries. Its success is undeniable given that the events it depicts are often taken for granted as being true to life. The mutiny on the Potemkin did happen, the massacre on the Odessa steps did not. A host of well known figures from the art world are participating. Join Jane and Louise Wilson, Jonny Woo, Sue Tilley, Andrew Logan and others, for this memorable event. It is all staged especially for INTERCOURSE, a fund-raiser dedicated to supporting and evolving the ICA, which is alive and well and under new management. This amazing day-long event includes a selection of unusual opportunities to get to know the ICA. Dine with leading British art figures including; Tracey Emin, enjoy the special live edition events , no one part of the day will be the same. The ICA is one of the world's most innovative, cutting-edge arts centers. Home to the best of new art and cultural thinking, we present a unique program of visual art, films, talks, performance and other special events. Founded in 1947 by a group of artists, poets and radicals, the ICA is the UK’s leading not-for-profit, multi-disciplinary arts centre. The mission is to challenge the foundations of contemporary art, creating space for new, experimental and independent arts practice and ideas. Housing two galleries, two cinemas, a theatre, reading room, bookshop and café/bar, the ICA presents an international and contextualised programme of work across a variety of art forms, to a wide and diverse range of audiences.