Directors Lounge Screening:

Gabriele Stellbaum
My over-groomed sense of entitlement

Thursday, 25 April 2013
21:00 Uhr
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

A woman, the sole character in the scene and obviously in some dependent employment stops to act according to the role expected of her as employe. With unblinking eyes she seems to follow a different agenda, or maybe a “vision”. She seems to act strange or unreasonable, however it could be the opposite, that all of her surroundings appear to be unreasonable to her. “I would prefer not to…” is her response when asked directly (Bartleby) This brief outline of “Bartleby” a video adaptation of the novel of Herman Melville basically matches several of Gabriele Stellbaum’s more recent works. Another response of the female main character is: “What you call a violation has been an act of disgust” (Summer Frost). The films are set in very different locations or studio sets. The camera follows her almost all the time, it is very rarely allowed to detach from her, and thus transmits a claustrophobic feeling, already. The picture is clear, pristine and of that unforgiving sharpness of high definition video realism, and still there is a sense of surrealism similar to some of Lars von Trier’s Dogma films (and “Dogville”). According to the artist it is all based on images, she starts a project with a mental image she has, and searches or builds the sets she is looking for: an office space that totally matches the color of her printed cotton dress (Bartleby); a public indoor pool and all the adjacent facility spaces connected with it (Friday, the 13th); a seemingly endless parking garage that functions as a spiral-shaped maze (Honest Lies); or a flat, snow covered winter landscape used as intermitted images.

Gabriele Stellbaum will be present for Q&A. Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Full program details:

http://www.richfilm.de/filmUpload/1-framesStellbaum.html

Artist Links:

http://stellbaum.wordpress.com/

http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/becker/Gabriele-Stellbaum8-27-10.asp

Links:

Directors Lounge

http://www.directorslounge.net

Z-Bar

http://www.z-bar.de