The Future's Getting Old Like The Rest Of Us (2010, 45mins)
23 July – 19 September
Sackler Centre of Arts Education
Serpentine Gallery
Screened on the hour
The Future’s Getting Old Like The Rest Of Us is a 16mm film conceived in the format of a TV Play and set in an older people’s care home. Part documentary, part fiction, the script for the film was a collaboration between Beatrice Gibson and writer and critic George Clark, and was constructed from transcripts of a discussion group held over a period of five months with the residents of four of Camden's care homes. Taking B.S. Johnson's 1971 experimental novel House Mother Normal as its formal departure point and employing the logic of a musical score, the script is edited into a vertical structure, featuring eight simultaneous monologues. The Future's Getting Old Like The Rest Of Us features actors Roger Booth, Corinne Skinner Carter, Janet Henfrey, Ram John Holder, Annie Firbank, John Tilbury, William Hoyland and Jane Wood.
The film is one of five commissions that have taken place as part of the Serpentine Gallery’s Skills Exchange Project in which artists, designers and architects work in collaboration with older people, care workers, young people and activists to develop ideas for social and architectural change. Camden Council has co-commissioned the film with the Serpentine Gallery. In addition to the film, stills and scripts will be installed in the new care home, due to be completed in 2012 at Maitland Park.
The Future's Getting Old Like The Rest Of Us will be screened in the Sackler Centre for Arts Education from 24 July to 19 September.
Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England
Funded by the National Lottery through Big Lottery Fund
Developed with the support of FLAMIN, Film London.
Skills Exchange
Beatrice Gibson with Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
Voice G (Deep, deliberate, polite, careful not to interrupt. Pensive, dreamy, attentive to other voices. Stoic) 2009
