James Benning – Circling the Image

The American film maker James Benning has been one of the outstanding exponents of the structural film since the mid-1970s. Benning’s artistic position has been strongly influenced by mathematics and by the creativity of mathematical thinking. With his new project 13 Lakes, James Benning goes one step further towards reducing things to a minimum. The film focuses on thirteen large American lakes (including Salton Sea, Lake Powell and Lake Michigan) along with their geographical and historical relationship to the landscape. The documentary James Benning -Circling the Image was occasioned by 13 Lakes, and was shot in California, Arizona, and Utah. It accompanies the artist for a week as he searches for locations and as he films the first two shots for his own film. It shows the artist on his travels, the unrelenting search for appropriate places and motifs, Bennings relationship towards the landscape, and the loneliness connected to the work. James Benning talks elaborately about his working method, his relationship towards the US as well as his opinions about himself as an artist and a film maker. This film -which includes poignant fragments of his work and has stylistic similarities to Benning’s works -is Rainer Wulf’s first feature length documentary.