18.10... 19.10.2002

S.M.A.K. presented ‘Cremaster 3’ at the International Filmfestival of Flanders in Ghent- 2002

Matthew Barney (°1967) can be considered as the prototype of an artist in the nineties. Documenta IX (1992) was his international breakthrough. His work exists of an extravagant mix of performances, videos, film, sculptures, installations and pictures. In his work he builds a self-willed world, which is populated with historical and legendary persons. The name “cremaster” is the name of the muscle, which under the influence of temperature, pulls up the testicles. Matthew Barney sees this biological process as a metaphor for the difference between man and woman and for a state of floating, the undetermined, the fatal. His fivefold Cremaster-cycle is a mix between autobiography, history, mythology and a fantasy world completely of his own, in which symbols and images are layered and interrelated. Closing piece of the cycle and also the magnum opus, is the three hour-long movie Cremaster 3 (2002). The movie is divided into four parts, which slowly show the gradual process of the transformations from man to artist.

There were screenings on the 18th and the 19th of October 2002.