Phill Niblock: Work (just phenomena) | exhibition

ExhibitionCella Gallery and Hovorny, Opava

27. 6. – 30. 8. 2025 Cella Gallery Opening on Friday, June 27 at 6:00 PM at Cella Gallery.

The exhibition Work (just phenomena) at Cella Gallery presents the film and musical work of composer, filmmaker, and photographer Phill Niblock (1933–2024).

“No climax, no development, no building – just phenomena.” — P. N.

Niblock’s extensive film series The Movement of People Working comprises over 25 hours of footage recorded since 1973 in countries including Peru, Mexico, Hungary, Hong Kong, Brazil, Lesotho, Portugal, China, Japan, Sumatra, and the Arctic. The unifying element across these diverse locations is the focus on basic, repetitively performed gestures of manual labor.

Originally working with 16mm color film and later using video and digital formats, Niblock’s method is consistently documentary and formally minimalist. The camera does not narrate, but observes. We watch people engaged in repetitive, often physically demanding tasks: forging, dyeing, fishing, harvesting, grinding. These scenes are presented without commentary or storyline – unfolding in real time, they draw attention to human movement and effort.

The film material is accompanied by Niblock’s typically loud musical compositions – microtonal drones created through the postproduction layering of recordings of acoustic instruments. Like the images, the music operates with subtle variation, minimal development, and dense spatiality. Yet Niblock himself considers the music more narrative than the films.

Image and sound are not synchronized in the traditional sense – instead, they exist in a free, shifting relationship. Each installation of The Movement of People Working is configured differently. The version for Cella Gallery, developed in collaboration with Niblock’s son Jasper Niblock and his partner Katherine Liberovskaya, presents a unique selection of films and compositions.

The exhibition is presented as an accompanying event to the Ostrava Days festival. During the festival (August 21–30), the gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 9AM – 5PM.