Rites of PASSAGE

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PASSAGE is an immersive installation by The Wapping Project Director Jules Wright and photographer Thomas Zanon-Larcher, who convert the Boiler House into a desolate cinema to showcase their latest collaboration. A tightly constructed thriller marrying stills and moving image together, PASSAGE is inspired by key cinematic moments, and explores the point where film, realism and installation blur to form a new and disconcerting reality.

Conceived by Jules Wright and Thomas Zanon-Larcher, PASSAGE is thoroughly European – shot on location in Cambridge, London, Paris, Vienna, Trieste, Milan, and the Gotthard Tunnel in Switzerlan. PASSAGE draws knowingly on cultural and social references, most of which will be spotted by the eagle eyed viewer. Cambridge as the starting point for a spy ring is not too difficult, while the opening drive through a seemingly interminable tunnel recalls the tension of Tarkovsky'sSolaris. The astute viewer will certainly spot a Peugeot in Paris, a red coat in Venice and a famous wheel in Vienna and other references to such films as The Third Man, The Day of the Jackal, Don’t Look Now, Rear Window, Bullit andMulholland Drive.

Setting the scene, the entrance to the Boiler House will be transformed with a broken neon sign flickering above a weather worn poster and just within earshot the faint hum of cars and the hiss of rain. Inside, black and white images of Odeon cinemas shot in the late 1930s by John Maltby (appearing here courtesy of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)), line a metaphorical corridor to a lavatory. The route, however, leads the viewer to a room in which evidence, of victim and pursuer, lay abandoned on cold steel tables. PASSAGE is projected on two screens slung adjacent to each other. The music score is by composer Billy Cowie.

PASSAGE was first staged in the Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Milan in April 2012, set in a 1930s’ bedroom, and included a live performance by the film’s protagonist. It is wholly re-imagined for London and The Wapping Project. A live performance will be streamed in the week of the 14 January from a real hotel bedroom in London, intensifying the surreal quality of the work. PASSAGE is on until 10 March 2013.

THE WAPPING PROJECT
Wapping Hydraulic Power Station
Wapping Wall
London E1W 3SG
00 44 207 680 2080
www.thewappingproject.com
Wapping Overground / Shadwell DLR / Buses: D3 & 100
 
Opening hours: Until 10 March 2013, Monday – Saturday noon till 10:30p.m., Sunday noon till 5:30p.m.
Admission free