Independent Cinema for Everyone

In the early 20th century, the architect Le Corbusier conceived of what would become Villa Le Lac. He imagined a structure without a site in mind, a conceptual apparatus for capturing light and opening views on the landscape, a ‘camera house’. The finished villa is a dialogue between two apertures: a long 11-meter ribbon window facing Lake Geneva, creating views like a celluloid filmstrip; and a smaller unglazed frame that is cut into an exterior garden wall. Mirroring this, The Horizontal Window is shot in two different cinematic ratios: 1.33:1, the original 35mm silent film ratio; and 2.35:1, the 35mm anamorphic ratio used by CinemaScope and early Panavision prior to 1970.

Smith’s video uses the villa as a case study to highlight the materiality of glass as an active element in the production of both moving images and architectural vistas – a powerful agent able to transmit, reflect and refract light.

The Horizontal Window was originally commissioned by the Gallery for Contemporary Art, E-WERK Freiburg; Glasgow International 2016; and The Telfer Gallery, Glasgow.

Sam Smith is a video, installation and performance artist currently based in the UK. Previous exhibition and performance projects include Whitechapel Gallery, London; Glasgow International 2016; Australian Centre for Moving Image, Melbourne; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Centro de Artes Visuais, Coimbra; Gallery of Contemporary Art E-WERK, Freiburg; De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam; and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.