Sitting on the cool concrete floor inside the dark, massive Turbine Hall of London’s Tate Modern museum watching Tacita Dean’s FILM was a singularly awesome and provocative experience. A short, silent, 35mm anamorphic movie projected on a white block nearly 50 feet high, Dean’s art installation was a film about film itself. Screened for free on a loop for five months at the Tate from late 2011 to early 2012, FILM filled the space with crowds and projected images, allowing its creator a platform to advocate for the future of the preferred medium for her work while at the same time mourning its potential demise. Even though film was seen as fading away, Dean’s FILM, filled with images of nature seen on a large scale, seemed so alive.
