Biography
Phillip Warnell is an artist-filmmaker and writer from London, a first generation university graduate from a working class background.
He produces cinematic works and written proposals that explore a range of philosophical, poetic and sensorial thematics: ideas on human-animal relations, the political and cinematic imagination, presence of those with prescient or extraordinary attributes and poetics of bodily and life-world circumstances. His work is often performative, establishing elements for a film shoot as (part) event, resulting in an interplay between scripted, documented and (sometimes) precarious filming circumstances.
His extensive written work has been included in numerous philosophical publications, journals and volumes. It engages with collaborative methodologies, human-animal relations, contemporary art, artists’ moving image practices and film & philosophy.
He has worked at numerous universities across the UK, USA and EU, undertaking visiting professorships, fellowships and residencies, including The Radcliffe Institute and Film Study Center at Harvard University and Beijing Normal University, China. He completed a PhD in 2020, on a decade of screen-based collaborations with esteemed philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, supervised by author and collaborator, Stephen Barber. He is also a highly renowned film mentor, leading on film knowledge transfer programs including for C4, BBC and BFI.
Selected exhibitions:
The Collective Purr, Chalandri, Athens, Greece, 2024
In Plain Sight, Wellcome Collection, London 2022-23
Tiger Lives, Kim Hong do Museum of Art, Korea 2022
Our Other Us, Arts Foundation Biennial, Romania 2021
Tiger Lives, Coreana Museum of Art, Korea 2020
Strange Foreign Bodies, Hunterian, Glasgow 2019
Making Nature, Wellcome Collection, London 2017
Box with the sound of its own making, Bucharest 2017
Welcome to the jungle, KW centre, Berlin 2015
Studio 55, Seoul 2015
Photographer’s Gallery, Vienna 2014 & 15
Tyneside Cinema Gallery, Newcastle 2015
Extra City, Antwerp 2015
Breathcrystal, Project Arts Space, Dublin 2015
Sharjah Biennial 11, 2013 (screening programme)
I first saw the light, SLG, London 2012
Sharjah Biennial 11, 2012
Introspection-Extramission, Leamington Spa 2008
Event Forming Bodies, 300m3, Gothenburg 2008
Le Dojo, Nice 2008
Matts Gallery, London 2005
Charge, First Site, UK 2004
Zero Visibility, MOMA, Ljubljana 2004
Zero Visibility, Genazzano, Castello Colonna 2003
Uncertain Time, Avellino 2003
Madrid Open, 2003
CCCB, Barcelona 2000
Elective Affinities, Agnes b, Paris 1999
Selected film festival and curated screenings:
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid 2023
Rencontres Internationale (Paris, Berlin) 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2021, 2023, 2024
Jeonju, Korea 2021
First Look, MOMI, Queens 2013, 2021
Museum of Modern Art of Medellín, Colombia (MAMM, 2021)
Visions du Reel, 2020
Valdivia, Chile 2015, 2020, 2021
Viennale 2014, 2021
Berlinale 71, 2021 critics week
MFF Mumbai, 2020
Cinetech, Madrid 2019
Museum of Clouds, Tate Modern, London 2019
DocBsas, Argentina, 2019 (retrospective of six films)
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, USA 2018
Block Cinema, Chicago 2018
Tate Modern, 2015 (solo screening event & launch)
Visions Experimental Film Centre, Montreal 2018
CCA, Glasgow 2016
Home Manchester 2016
Sheffield Doc Fest 2017
IDFA, Amsterdam 2008, 2014
KW, Berlin 2015
VIFF Vancouver 2015
Viafarini Milan 2015
FICIC Argentina 2016
New Horizons Poland 2015
Curitiba Brazil 2015
Palazzo Grassi Venice 2015
BAFICI Buenos Aires 2015
Indie-Lisboa Lisbon 2015
Tate Modern London 2015
Doc-Point Helsinki 2015
Museum of Hunting & Nature, Paris 2015
Bozar Cinema, Fine Arts Centre, Brussels 2015
Nova Cinema Brussels 2015
CPH-Dox, 2009, 2014, 2017
New York film festival 2015
Flahertina doc festival, Russia 2016
BAFICI, Argentina 2015
FICUNAM, Mexico 2015
Schermo dell'Arte, Florence Film Festival 2014
FNC, Montreal 2012,14
VIFF, Vancouver 2015
Vdrome (online) 2014
Locarno, Switzerland 2012
FID Marseille 2008, 2009, 2014
LOOP Barcelona, 2011
SLG, London 2010, 2015
ICA, London 2015
Stromung mini film-fest focus, Leipzig 2014
Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts Museum, Vietnam 2012
Reel Screen, Beirut Film Festival, 2010, 2008
MACRO, Rome 2004
MOMA, Ljubljana 2003
CCCB, Barcelona 2000
Selected Visiting Artist talks (university talks/symposia/artists’ residencies):
NTU, Singapore
City University, Hong Kong
HKW centre, Berlin
Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
INEFF, Salford University, UK
ENS, Paris
Pompidou Centre, Paris
Cambridge University, UK
UCLA, USA
Harvard Film Archive, USA
Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab, USA
Melbourne, Australia
Beijing Normal, China
Coventry University
Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France
EICTV Film School, Cuba
Newcastle University, UK
CRASSH, Cambridge University, UK
Central St Martins, UK
George Mason University, USA
Moly Sabata residency, France
LUCA Art School, Brussels
LOOP festival, Barcelona
Asterides studio residency, Marseille
Cite des Arts residency, Paris
Warwick University, UK (Leverhulme fellowship)
Gloucestershire University, UK
Kingston University, UK
DAI Institute, Netherlands
Natural History Museum, London
Edge Hill University, UK
UCA (fellowship), UK
Glasgow University, UK
Goldsmiths, UK
RCA, UK
Brera Academy, Milan, Italy
Naples, Italy
Ural biennial, Russia
Middlesex, UK
Northwestern, USA
Brockport (Visual Studies Workshop residency), USA
Kings College, UK
Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Netherlands
FID Campus, Marseille International film festival
Selected texts, articles and awards
Research & Development
Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, 2024
The Listening Screen
UCCA, symposium on european cinema, Beijing 2024
In Perfect Light
ENS Paris, paper 2023/book chapter 2025
Fearful Symmetry
Ethical Materialities in Art & Moving Image, 2024
A Shared Love
Qui Parle Journal, 2022
The Thinker
Chinese Contemporary Arts Journal, 2022
An Intelligence of Things
Italian Arts Council, Pamela Breda, 2021
The Skin of Others
Antennae Journal, 2020
Anatomy of the Incorporeal
(PhD thesis), 2020
Wild Minds
Introductory remarks symposium convener, ICA, 2017
Writing in the place of the animal
Nancy & Visual Culture, 2016
The Wild Inside
an Interview with Phillip Warnell, Rhiannon Harries
The Zoo and Screen Media, Images of exhibition and encounter, 2016
The Beast with Two Backs (on Borowczyk)
L’ile D’Amour, Berghahn Books, 2015
The Glance as a Blow
Ural Biennial symposium publication, 2012
The beast with two backs
Cambridge University (paper) CRASSH, 2013
Projections of Animality
Paper at the Natural History Museum, 2011
Intimate Distances
Leonardo Journal, 2011
The Sea with Corners
Outlandish artists’ book, 2010 Transplantations. Volume 14 Transplant
Transplantations. Volume 14 Issue 4 pp. 12-18, Performance Research, 2010
Radiation
A Lexicon. Volume 11 Issue 3 pp. 105-109, Performance Research, 2008
The Light Emitting Organ (and Thin Slices)
On the Page. Volume 9 Issue 2 pp. 44-51), Performance Research, 2004
Selected performances
Cineteca Madrid, 2019
Harvard Film Archive, 2018
ICA London, 1999, 2006
Crikey Moses Blimey tour, 1999
First Site, Colchester, 2004
Golden Years festival, Copenhagen 2007
BraakeGrond, Amsterdam 2007
Vooruit, Ghent 2007
Warwick Arts Centre, UK 2008
BFI London, 2008
Macro, Rome 2004
Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana 2003
Galerie du Jour, Paris 1999
Short list of Fellowships, Professorships & teaching posts
Beijing Normal, China (Visiting, current)
Harvard University, USA (Radcliffe & Film Study Center Fellowship)
University of Lincoln, UK (current)
Kingston University, UK
UCA, UK (Visiting Professor)
LUCA, Belgium (Visiting Professor)
University of Gloucestershire, UK
George Mason University, USA (Adjunct Faculty)
Brockport University, USA
University of Brighton, UK (External Examiner)
Warwick University, UK (Leverhulme Trust Fellowship)
Online films by Phillip Warnell
Limited cinema/Blu-ray release, Ming of Harlem, Soda Pictures/Thunderbird MUBI LINK
Intimate Distances on Truestory.com since 2022
Ming of Harlem, available on Amazon Prime and MUBI, UK
Playing on this page: I first saw the light
on Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man)
commissioned by The South London Gallery, 2012
a footnote to David Lynch
12mins, S16mm, silent film
made in association with the Royal London Hospital archive
below: Installation of I first saw the light at SLG, 2012
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