Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art

Quarantaine

An image of a film being screened in a dark room. The screen shows two people sat at a table, one appears to be giving the other a tarot reading. They both look surprised. There are eggs suspended in the air behind them and dahlias in a vase on the table.
Georgina Starr, Quarantaine, 2021,
Tramway, Glasgow International 2021
Georgina Starr, Quarantaine (2020). Courtesy of the artist, FVU, Art Fund, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Leeds Art Gallery and Glasgow International
image of film being screened in a dark room. There are 4 actors in seated positions and two doing handstands. They are wearing very brightly coloured clothing.
Georgina Starr, Quarantaine, 2021,
Tramway, Glasgow International 2021
Georgina Starr, Quarantaine (2020). Courtesy of the artist, FVU, Art Fund, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Leeds Art Gallery and Glasgow International
An image of a film being screened in a dark room. The screen shows a person at a desk with an audience in front of them. There is a curtain of eggs suspended in the air behind them.
Georgina Starr, Quarantine. 2021,
Tramway, Glasgow International 2021
Georgina Starr, Quarantaine (2020). Courtesy of the artist, FVU, Art Fund, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Leeds Art Gallery and Glasgow International
Image of a film being screened in a dark room. The screen shows a person in a dress opening a door in a wall that is covered in drawings. A red light comes from the doorway.
Georgina Starr, Quarantaine, 2021,
Tramway, Glasgow International 2021
Georgina Starr, Quarantaine (2020). Courtesy of the artist, FVU, Art Fund, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Leeds Art Gallery and Glasgow International
image of film being screened in large dark room. the screen shows a giant ear and two naked bodies lying one atop the other.
Georgina Starr, Quarantaine, 2020,
Installation view, Tramway, Glasgow International 2021
Courtesy of the artist, FVU, Art Fund, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Leeds Art Gallery and Glasgow International. Image: Matthew Arthur Williams.

Tramway

Quarantaine is an ambitious new film by Georgina Starr. Its title refers to the French word for ‘forty’, and also alludes to the period of enforced isolation known in English as ‘quarantine’ (so-called because of its original forty-day timeframe). Over the course of multiple chapters, it follows the story of two new recruits to a clandestine sisterhood whose pursuit of esoteric knowledge takes place in a secret place of instruction, similarly cut off from the world outside.

Contrasting what seems like a cult-like focus on strict supervision and mind-control with other more unruly rituals of mind expansion and extrasensory perception, Quarantaine continues Starr’s preoccupation with the otherworldly and the occult, and her longstanding interests in the visionary aspects of experimental cinema, to further her exploration of the hidden recesses of the creative imagination.

Co-commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow, Leeds Art Gallery and Glasgow International with Art Fund support through the Moving Image Fund for Museums. This programme is made possible thanks to Thomas Dane Gallery and a group of private galleries and individuals. Supported by Arts Council England