BFI Gallery

The BFI Gallery was the British Film Institute's contemporary art gallery dedicated to artists' moving image housed within BFI Southbank, the BFI's flagship venue in London, previously known as the National Film Theatre. The space was funded by the BFI with Arts Council England support and opened on 14 March 2007, to coincide with the reopening of the site. Its programme of new commissions, events and associated artists' film screenings was curated by Elisabetta Fabrizi, BFI Head of Exhibitions. The programme included exhibitions by Michael Snow, John Akomfrah, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pierre Bismuth, Jane & Louise Wilson, Peter Campus, Patrick Keiller, Phil Collins, Matt Collishaw, Yvonne Rainer, Julian Rosensfeld, Michel Gondry, Deimantas Narkevicious, Mark Lewis. Film programmes linked to the gallery exhibitions included a retrospective of the films of Sergei Paradjanov and of Michael Snow. As stated in the BFI Annual Review 2010-11: The BFI Gallery has a deserved international reputation at the forefront of commissioning and exhibiting innovative and exciting artists working with the moving image. Since opening its doors in 2007 audiences have enthusiastically taken up rare opportunities to experience the work of worldclass artists such as Pierre Bismuth and Michel Gondry, Mat Collishaw, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Jane and Louise Wilson. Major new exhibitions and retrospectives from a diverse and gifted range of artists took place, John Akomfrah, Julian Rosefeldt, Yvonne Rainer and Phil Collins. June 2010 opened with 'Mnemosyne', a pioneering film by John Akomfrah that movingly explores themes of memory and migration in the West Midlands, weaving archival footage from 1960 to 1981 with contemporary portraits of Birmingham. The film is an innovative mix of documentary and poetic essay and was described by Ken Russell, and experienced by visitors, as ‘mind blowing’. Julian Rosefeldt’s 'American Night'; a complex, five-channel film installation by the Berlin-based artist that confirmed.