“The content of the film [Railroad Turnbridge] has to do with the transition, between 1906 and 1925, from welded iron construction to riveting; and as soon as they began riveting, they built extraordinary steel structures, epitomized by the bridges we have in this country….[which] are the most obvious representations that we have of indigenous, unpretentious building….You don’t have to understand what sculpture has been in this country to have a love affair with American bridges.

“Railroad Turnbridge took a year to shoot; I went out to Portland [Oregon] six times. I didn’t go out and shoot a bridge because I thought it was an interesting industrial object, or an indigenous American relic. I think there was really a need to investigate what ‘bridgeness’ meant to me.” — Richard Serra, in a 1979 interview with Annette Michelson*

The exhibition RICHARD SERRA—FILMS AND VIDEOTAPES presents sixteen films and videos Richard Serra made between 1968 and 1979. All works will be screened in the original formats.

RICHARD SERRA—FILMS AND VIDEOTAPES, through October 17.

KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL/GEGENWART, St. Alban-Rheinweg 60, Basel.

kunstmuseumbasel.ch/en/exhibitions/2017/richard-serra

* “The Films of Richard Serra: An Interview (with Serra, Michelson, and Clara Weyergraf, who made the film Steelmill/Stahlwerk with Serra), October 10 (Fall 1979). Reprinted in Richard Serra, Writings and Interviews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 69.

See Richard Serra, Railroad Turnbridge on UbuWeb:

ubu.com/film/serra_turnbridge.html