The Place of Dead Roads

Androgyne cowboys

The Place of Dead Roads is a western structured around the choreography of a shootout.  Four dirty, down and out, androgynous cowboys adopt the ritual poses from the Western genre – twirling their pistols in their hands, aiming, falling and so on – however, contrary to those in a film, these poses have no narrative or chronological order and appear to be dictated by messages from a secret world buried somewhere deep within. Gradually their actions come to resemble an odd kind of dance. The setting of the film is an underground world and the cowboys roam around in a confusing maze of passages and rooms. The film is screened to the accompaniment of a live concert by tMiles Whittaker, known from Demdike Stare/HATE/Modern Love.

• The Danish artist Joachim Koester recently exhibited his work in SMAK (Ghent), the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), the Moderna Museet (Stockholm) and at the Jan Mot gallery (Brussels). In his films, photo series and installations he tells long forgotten stories through the strategic use of editing and archiving.

• Miles Whittaker and the Modern Love label have left an indelible imprint on dark and discerning dancefloors across the world since the early 00s. From the Amen flippage of tracks like Cunning Love and Human Resources, to the dub atmospherics of Optimal or MVO Chamber, Whittaker’s vision of occult sonics is unique. But it’s alongside Finders Keepers’ Sean Canty as Demdike Stare that Whittaker’s signature tones have really resonated with audiences, condensing pagan textures and obscure breaks into masterfully sustained tension and release that exist in a genre of their own, on tracks like Jannisary, and their Testpressing series. Whittaker has also released under his own name, with his diverse collection Faint Hearted, which further emphasized that even with all his collaborations, Whittaker is out in his own musical orbit.