Screening Room: Rita Ackermann's ‘Listen to the Image’

On the occasion of the exhibition 'Rita Ackermann. Splits’ at Hauser & Wirth 22^nd Street and ‘Rita Ackermann. Splits: Printing | Painting’ at Hauser & Wirth 18^th Street, we're thrilled to present Rita Ackermann’s new film ‘Listen to the Image’ in the amphitheater at Hauser & Wirth 18th Street. 
 
‘Listen to the Image’ is a 59-minute montage film drawing from a collaged series of found media, film, sound, painting and recordings. The quote ‘listen to the image’ comes from the original trailer for Robert Bresson’s film ‘Mouchette’ and elicits an active viewership into Ackermann’s creative process and ideological approach. 

The film will play on loop during gallery hours from Tuesday 28 May – Saturday 1 June. Start times are detailed below, and all screenings are free and open to the public. 
 
Start Times 
10 am, 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, 5 pm 
 
Listen to the Image, 2024 
Silent Montage Film 
59 min 
By Rita Ackermann 
Assistant Editor David Wirth 
 
Footage Credits in Order of Appearance 
Vivre Savie Puppet Show by Ria Ackermann, 1996, voice Kim Gordon 
Painted stained glass of angels for 777 Club at Soccer Club, 2024, Chicago 
Hail Mary by JL Godard, 1985, music JS Bach 
5.55 am sundown and 5.55 pm sunset video, 2024 by Rita Ackermann 
Written quote by Victor Hugo 
Michael Jackson Bad 25 by Spike Lee 
Robert Bresson interview, 1983, YouTube 
Bresson (on Cinema), YouTube 
Michael Jackson This Is It (Rehearsals), 2010, YouTube 
JL Godard on Dick Cavett, 1980, YouTube 
Hail Mary by JL Godard, 1986 
Lancelot of the Lake by Robert Bresson, 1974 
Hands on Bresson, YouTube 
Charlie Chaplin Moonwalk, YouTube 
Michael Jackson Moonwalk, YouTube 
Trailor by JL Godard for Mouchette, 1967 
Animation by Rita Ackermann, 1995, for Visual Mafia MTV 
Mouchette by Robert Bresson, 1967, Monterverdi 
The Silent World by Jaques Cousteau, 1956 

‘Image and sound, they are just tools. Sometimes, as I say, even if it looks like a paradox, you have to listen to the image and look at the sound to use it in the music or in the painting.’—JL Godard

About 'Splits’ and ‘Splits: Printing | Painting’ 
Hauser & Wirth presents Rita Ackermann’s latest series of paintings and prints in simultaneous exhibitions spanning the gallery’s two West Chelsea locations. At 542 West 22nd Street, the artist debuts a suite of new canvases expanding upon the techniques, themes and imagery she has explored over the course of her career since the early 1990s, while at 443 West 18th Street she unveils a series of complex large-scale silkscreens. Heralding a significant leap in her artistic practice, these prints represent a dramatic convergence of the technical processes of printmaking with Ackermann’s sustained exploration of form, movement and erasure. 

About Rita Ackermann 
Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1968, Rita Ackermann currently lives and works in New York.

Ackermann’s recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Hidden,’ MASI Lugano, Switzerland (2023); ‘Vertical Vanish,’ Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles (2023); ‘Mama ‘19,’ Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street (2020); ‘Brother Sister,’ Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Switzerland (2019); ‘Movements as Monuments,’ La Triennale di Milano, Italy (2018); ‘Turning Air Blue,’ Hauser & Wirth Somerset, England (2017); ‘KLINE RAPE,’ Hauser & Wirth New York, 22nd Street (2016); ‘The Aesthetic of Disappearance,’ Malmö Konsthall, Malmo, Sweden (2016); ‘Chalkboard Paintings,’ Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Switzerland (2015); ‘MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE-HAIR WASH,’ Sammlung Friedrichshof, Burgenland, Austria and Sammlung Friedrichshof Stadtraum, Vienna, Austria (2014); ‘Negative Muscle,’ Hauser & Wirth New York, 69th Street (2013); ‘Fire by Days,’ Hauser & Wirth London, Piccadilly (2012); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami FL (2012); ‘Bakos,’ Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary (2011); and ‘Rita Ackermann and Harmony Korine: ShadowFux,’ Swiss Institute, New York NY (2010).