Itinerant Belongings

We are very excited to announce the final public programs in conjunction with the exhibition Itinerant Belongings - a conversation and discussion with William Pope.L and a screening of his recent film Reenactor.

William Pope.L will be in conversation with Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw on December 8 at 6:30 pm at Slought Pope.L's film Reenactor (2012), will also be played at Slought for 72 continuous hours from December 9-11.

Filmed in Nashville, Reenactor shows volunteers - many of them students from Tennessee State University where the film debuted - donning Robert E. Lee confederate soldier uniforms or what the artist describes as "the most visible and onerous costumes of our historical past." Pope.L followed the "swarm" of reenactors as they wandered around Nashville performing quotidian activities, such as sweeping floors and caring for children. Through this intervention, the violent history of the South seeps into the fabric of everyday life, haunting this city with its most disquieting legacies. Pope.L's film alternates between different modes of filmmaking and performance, including documentary-style footage, a surreal puppet show, and Civil War reenactments in Pennsylvania.

Like many of the works in the Itinerant Belongings exhibition, the film eschews a fixed diegesis and unitary temporality. This logic extends to Reenactor's extensive duration in the gallery space. Viewers are invited to defy the conventions of traditional spectatorship and absorb the experience of the film into the rhythms of their everyday by resting on couches and beanbag chairs, drinking and eating, and even sleeping at any hour.

For more information about the event and the film, please visit our website:https://slought.org/resources/reenactor
As part of the exhibition, video footage from Pope.L's performance Tompkins Square Crawl is also on view in Slought's storefront space. Itinerant Belongings closes on January 10, so please check it out if you have not had a chance!