Film Program
Matinée (11–14h): Wermke/Leinkauf, Grenzgänger
Lunch (14–17h): Elske Rosenfeld, A bit of a Complex Situation & Versuche / Framed
Soirée (17–20h): FORT, The Calling
New addition: Roseline Rannoch, Dark Ride II. They are us revisited.
Works by: Karl Holmqvist, Hanne Lippard, OOIEE, Franziska Pierwoss, Albrecht Pischel, and Philipp Rupp
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“Grenzgänger” (2006) documents the early morning crossing from the Eastern to the Western bank of the Spree river of a person at the exact spot where until 1989 the inner-German border existed.
“A bit of a Complex Situation” (2-channel video, 2014) is an intervention in a recording of the first meeting of the Central Round Table of the GDR [German Democratic Republic/ East Germany] on December 7, 1989. In the scene, filmed by filmmaker and opposition member Klaus Freymuth, proceedings are interrupted by the sounds of a demonstration approaching outside. For ten minutes, members of the new movements and state representatives struggle to agree on a response. Rosenfeld amplifies and repeats movements, gestures, sounds, marking and intensifying the breaks and continuities between inside and outside, language and body, representation, and embodiment.
“Versuche / Framed” (2018) is based on video sketches by filmmaker Klaus Freymuth for an election spot for “Bündnis 90” [Alliance 90] – an alliance of some of the new groups from the Round Table. Freymuth positions and films two protagonists of the Round Table as they view his recording of one of these meetings, one year on. In her edit, Rosenfeld plays with the different filmic and corresponding temporal frames, drawing attention to the changing contexts in which political events are given meaning. In all of these nested frames, bodies come to the fore, as language meets its limits.
“The Calling” shows a contrasting environment, that of employees fast asleep at their workplaces. While sleep has historically been considered a time and space to rest and regenerate the body, to evoke dreaming, perhaps even fantasizing, in our late capitalist society sleep is often a reaction to an overdose of work… or life, and seen as a dysfunction. Wide-spread phenomena in capitalist societies like exhaustion, burn out, or depression manifest themselves in sometimes day-long sleep.
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Elske Rosenfeld
Elske Rosenfeld, born in Halle/Saale, lives in Berlin, works in different media and formats. Her primary focus and material are the histories of state socialism and its dissidences, and the revolution of 1989/90.
Her works have been featured in international exhibitions, among others at f/stop Leipzig (2018), Gorki Herbstsalon III (2017), mumok kino, Vienna (2016), steirischer herbst festival, Graz (2015), Devi Art Foundation, Delhi (2013) and Former West, Utrecht (2010). Her texts have been published in/on eipcp.net, Reviews in Cultural Theory, Springerin – Hefte für Gegenwartskunst, and other publications; she recently began blogging on www.dissidencies.net.
Wermke/Leinkauf
The Berlin-based artist duo Wermke/Leinkauf (Matthias Wermke and Mischa Leinkauf) explores the boundaries of the public sphere to question common standards and constraints and the boundaries between public and private. They work on actions, performances, and installations dealing with the hidden possibilities of a city. Their main interest lies in the appropriation and conquest of architecture and, more generally, urban space, especially the open spaces and gaps in the system, which in their eyes are crucial for our contemporary society. Using artistic strategies, they create temporary irritations that allow new perspectives on everyday situations and try to “open” the city by using not only their bodies but the material and the tools of urban spaces to create a context-specific commentary.