DISARM, 2024
Tuesday 16 July 2024
7–7.30pm | Screening at Piccadilly Lights, London
8–10pm | Drinks and Conversation at 180 Studios, WC2R 1EA
Join Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press and CIRCA for the global premiere of DISARM on Tuesday 16 July, 7–7.30pm in Piccadilly Circus – beside Eros, The Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain.
The screening will be followed by drinks and a conversation between the artist and British-Iranian journalist, producer and author, Ramita Navai at 180 Studios, the Strand from 8–10pm (RSVP to rsvp@circa.art).
For Season III of CIRCA 20:24, Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press presents a new commission, a military fly-over performing the seemingly impossible. Whilst Banner's flypast might seem like a jingoistic display of military might, it in fact reveals itself to be the opposite, as jets emerge from an immense sky to spell out the word DISARM. DISARM will be shown daily on the Piccadilly screen through the summer in London, as well as sites in Milan, Seoul, Tokyo and more.
Capturing the contradictory phenomena of military fly-overs – 'a raw moment of extreme weather,' Banner's flypast juxtaposes a display of military prowess with the work's own longing and over reaching ambition for an escape from humanity's incessant assault on its people and its planet.
Imbued with double meanings, DISARM is a call to break free from cycles of violence; a utopic proposal for a future beyond the realities of warfare and a reference both to our own bodies and nature. Displaying state-of-the-art fighter jets from a variety of global military powers, the flypast aircraft are named after forces of nature such as Typhoon, Leopard and Lightning.
In a work that melds nature with destruction and hope; language and conflict; power and desire, DISARM captures a moment in which our language meets its limits. 'In and of itself, a fight plane is, to me, the opposite of language' says Banner. 'A complete breakdown – a physical regression into conflict. But the planes in the film are also performing language. And at the same time, it's a bit of anti-language.' The flypast is an 'extreme performance' that crosses over from military to leisure cultures, here the usual ego or nationalist message of air shows is subverted with a global call to disarm.
Banner explores the potential of language to create impact and exist beyond the naïve or clichéd. In her flypast, language is in action, subversive and perversely demonstrative.
DISARM, 2024 will be screened every day at 20:24 at Piccadilly Circus.
Image: Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press. Photo: Leroy Boeteng
