Ultimate Substance (Kirschner and Panos, 2012)
HD, 34min, sound
Ultimate Substance departs from the hypothesis that the introduction of coinage in Mediterranean civilisations from 600BC effected a profound cognitive shift towards abstraction and was key to the emergence of western philosophic, scientific and dramatic traditions. Filmed in and around the Attic mining region of Lavreotiki and the Numismatic Museum in Athens, urban and industrial landscapes feature as palimpsests of different temporal strands that bear material witness to the division of sensual and abstract knowledges and the violence as well as the communal rites and struggles enacted through this schism to the present day.
Commissioned by Secession, Extra City Kunsthal Antwerpen, Liverpool Biennial and FACT, with support from Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, CentrePasquArt Biel, NEON and Arts Council England.
