Flatpack Festival
Film for all the senses

The Cremaster Cycle

Thursday 6th April, 2017

Lyttelton Theatre | 11:00 - 21:15

A rare showing of Matthew Barney's heavily symbolic five-film epic.

Cremaster 1: 11:00 - 11:45

Cremaster 2: 12:15 - 13:40

Cremaster 3: 15:00 - 18:05

Cremaster 4: 19:15 - 20:00

Cremaster 5: 20:15 - 21:15

Dripping with vaseline and sexual symbolism, boasting cameos by Ursula Andress, Norman Mailer and the drummer from Slayer, and employing a backdrop that takes us from the Isle of Man to the Chrysler Building via a Budapest bathhouse; there’s nothing quite like The Cremaster Cycle. Matthew Barney’s epic five-film undertaking, named after a muscle in the male reproductive system, was made over an eight year period and has been inspiring heated discussion ever since. Opportunities to catch it on the big screen come few and far between, and this rare all-dayer will present the films in order of their production, along with regular breaks for decoding, head-scratching and sandwich consumption.

Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels.

These screenings are delivered in partnership with BOM's Genecraft: Art in the Biogenetic Age exhibition (22 February - 13 May) and Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s I Want! I Want! - Art and Technology exhibition (1 April - 1 October).

Cremaster 4 is part of the Artangel Collection, an initiative to bring outstanding film and video works, commissioned and produced by Artangel, to galleries and museums across the UK. The Artangel Collection has been developed in partnership with Tate, is generously supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Foyle Foundation and uses public funding from Arts Council England.

Buy all five screenings in one go, at a reduced price by getting the Cremaster Cycle Bundle.

Dir: Matthew Barney USA 1994-2002, 398 mins

Cert: 18

Join our mailing list

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required