Robinson in England: A Conversation with Patrick Keiller

Abstract

Patrick Keiller, a British artist and filmmaker, made five short films and three film essays: London (1994), Robinson in Space (1997) and Robinson in Ruins (2010). The main characters of the latter works are Robinson and his nameless companion – the narrator. They set off on a series of journeys to places nearly completely devoid of human presence or activity, investigating their semantic and myth-making potential. Keiller’s film essays are multi-layered narratives exploring, among others, such issues as the production of space, the functioning of memory, and the feeling of nostalgia. “Drifting”, understood as a game of spatial and verbal associations, reveals Keiller’s fascination with architecture, which is filmed in an innovative way. The contribution is a record of two interviews with Patrick Keiller, made in Oxford in September 2018 and 2019.

Keywords

• Patrick Keiller
• London
• England
• psychogeography
• Robinson
• architecture