press release
BREDA BEBAN I CAN’T MAKE YOU LOVE ME
18 March–10 May 2003
I CAN’T MAKE YOU LOVE ME is an exhibition of new work
by adopted British artist, Breda Beban. In using film, video
and photography to enact deeply personal narratives, it shares
many of the characteristics of Beban’s recent solo exhibition,
STILL (shown at Site Gallery, Sheffield in 2000). Both exhibit
a restless tension between ‘Balkan’ and ‘British’
cultural identity. However, whilst STILL centred on feelings
of loss in relation to death, I CAN’T MAKE YOU LOVE ME
examines contradiction in relation to love.
The exhibition revolves around a two-screen projection which
combines tracking shots of a dialogue between Beban and her
British former lover with haunting images (shot by internationally
acclaimed cinematographer Robby Müller) of Beban and a
Romany band drifting on a raft along the Danube in Belgrade,
while performing the walk of the three chairs. The juxtaposition
of stills of abandoned beds, views through windows and the sound
of a traditional Balkan song Who Doesn’t Know How to Suffer
Doesn’t Know How to Love, function to emphasise the inconsistency
and fragility of love.
Beban was born and raised in Yugoslavia, and now lives and
works between London and Sheffield, where she is a Senior Lecturer
at the Northern Media School. In 2001 she was the recipient
of a Paul Hamlyn award for the Visual Arts.
I CAN’T MAKE YOU LOVE ME is a Film and Video Umbrella
/ John Hansard Gallery co-commission supported by the National
Touring Programme of the Arts Council of England.
