Film As A Subversive Art is a new LUX project inspired by Amos Vogel’s 1974 book of the same name. It will be one of four curated exhibitions at this year's new-look Zoo Art Fair (London, 16-19 October), alongside projects by Form Content, Studio Voltaire and Rob Tufnell.
Vogel's original book was based on his encyclopaedic knowledge of cinema, gathered during his formative years as the programmer of the Cinema 16 film society in New York. It offers a catalogue of ‘subversive’ film which stretches from the artistic avant-garde to mondo movies. Recently reprinted, the book remains tendentious, exhilarating and – above all – optimistic: as Vogel concluded, “the subject of this book will always remain on the agenda… these pages are but a rough draft; for the subject of this book is human freedom, and its guardians, at all times and under all circumstances, are the subversives.” Taking its cue from Vogel, LUX's Film As A Subversive Art project will examine the contemporary possibilities and limits of filmic subversion.