For the Marina Abramović exhibition, a surcharge applies. See Stedelijk.nl/surcharge, also for exceptions.

Jun 16, 2005

Time
Jun 16, 2005, 10.59 am

SMCS on 11. Thursday, June 16, Film presentation (about 1 hour) of Tracey Emins Top Spot, starting 8:30 p.m. English dialogue, Dutch subtitles. Free admission.

Top Spot is a film about adolescent girls growing up in the English seaside resort of Margate, where Tracey Emin was raped when she was 13. Thus, like all the work of this British artist, her first film has a strong autobiographical background. In a documentary scenario, the six main characters sketch a sombre picture of the manners and life of the youth in Emin’s former home town. 

‘How do you know people call you a slag?’ 
‘Cos my friend told me.’ 
‘That doesn’t sound like much of a friend.’ 
‘Well, she is a friend, or else she wouldn’t have told me, would she?’ 


More important yet are the unrequited loves, the loss of innocence, and above all, the suppression of unpleasant experiences with boys. On the one hand, the film shows us the dreams and desirers of the adolescents, in which we can recognise the aid of director Michael Winterbottom who co-produced the film,  and on the other hand the strongly contrasting adolescent tragedies that play out there unnoticed. When one of the girls commits suicide, the directress herself appears in the scene and – like Grace in Lars von Trier’s Dogville – effects the destruction of the town.

Top Spot recently premiered at the film festival in Berlin. To Tracey Emin’s great annoyance, in Great Britain the film was given an 18+ rating, which prevents its most important target audience from seeing it – the girls whose story it tells. 
The Dutch premiere of Top Spot was on June 16 in SMCS on 11. Due to the wide public interest it will be screened again on August 4. The Stedelijk Museum provided the film with Dutch subtitles.

Our thanks to White Cube Gallery and Melissa Parmenter.

SMCS on 11
SMCS on 11 is the programme of lectures, discussions, film and video presentations by Stedelijk Museum CS. The ‘11’ refers to the 11th storey of the Post CS Building, where most of the activities are held.