News, notes, screenings and ramblings from Directors Lounge, the mothership of media art.
A GERMAN YOUTH (UNE JEUNESSE ALLEMANDE)
French filmmaker Jean-Gabriel Périot has screened more movies than any other director at Directors Lounge. Jean-Gabriel has been with us since the very first days, presenting around 16 films during the last years. In 2010 we had a special work show with him attending and introducing his delicate way to work with archival footage.
His latest feature film, A GERMAN YOUTH (une jeunesse allemande), tells the story of the Red Army Fraction, West-Germany, 1965-1977. A story of images and violences; again told solely through original imagery from that time.
Highly recommended for our German speaking friends.
Off the Trail on the road to Berlin.
Off the Trail, a short film by Jacob Cartwright & Nick Jordan is the winner of the prestigious ZEBRA Poetry award as the best poetry film.
Nick Jordan and Jacob Cartwright are well-known names to the friends of Directors Lounge, Their hauntingly beautiful short Edgar was a darling of the very first Berlin International Directors Lounge back in 2005 and had several apperances in curated screenings.
In 2008 we screened New Madrid, a poetic movie shot in the Mississippi floodplain at an area of swampland formed by the earthquakes of 1811-12, an area that was once the town New Madrid.
The 10 min short Off the Trail, adapted from Cartwright and Jordan’s longer work, Headlands Lookout is based on the poem “Endless Streams and Mountains“ by Gary Snyder.
Walk the path, sit the rains, grind the ink, wet the brush, unroll the broad white space….Lead out and tip the moist, black line.
Gary Snyder’s invocation to the muse of a Chinese scroll painter sets the tone as the camera follows a central protagonist, a soldier from another era, as he performs a series of actions and rituals. The uniformed figure paints Chinese nature symbols, chants, meditates and wanders dreamlike through a rolling Californian landscape of fog-shrouded hills, coastal defences and dense woodland valleys. Scenes are filmed in former US military barracks, and in the long-abandoned homes and circular library of Gary Snyder and Zen philosopher Alan Watts, accompanied by haiku and poetry readings from Michael McClure and Gary Snyder, and the disembodied voice of Alan Watts, ruminating upon the passage of time and our perception of the ‘wild’.
Off the trail will be shown, next to the other ZEBRA Poetry award winners, will be shown at the Poetry film gala on Wednesday, Nov 16 during the Interfilm festival.
8pm: Poetry film gala 10pm: Best of
Hackesche Höfe Kino, Rosenthaler Straße 40-41, 10178 Berlin
Entrance: 8/7 Euro
Directors Lounge Screening
Bruno Gularte Barreto 5 Houses
Thursday, 3 November 2016 19:00 Blender & Co Boddinstrasse 32 12053 Berlin U8 Boddinstrasse
The Brazlian director and photographer Bruno Gularte Barreto comes to Berlin to present his new film project “5 Houses”. The idea of “5 Houses” revolves around trying to recreate childhood memories’ images, but it is also a journey through the lives of the people in a small town in the extreme south of Brasil.
5 HOUSES is a feature documentary project portraying the houses and lives of 5 different characters. They talk about life and death, memory, education, prejudice, violence and share their experiences and beliefs. Though they are very diverse people, they share a connection in their relationship with the director`s childhood memories. Each person and house to be portrayed was part of his upbringing throughout his childhood and formative years.
Besides being part of the same array of memories, these characters share another characteristic: the fact they are all, in their own way, “outsiders” in the somewhat narrow-minded place where they live.
During the film, a portrait is revealed, an image of the city itself and the way some people, even-though humble, can help change other people’s lives for the better. In the last house we have a fifth character, who is actually present in the other four segments in the figure of the director – an invisible observer who frames and chooses where, what and who to look at.
Original title: 5 Casas, English title: 5 Houses. Director: Bruno Gularte Barreto Producer: Jessica Luz 50 mins work-in-progress English subtitles Brazil, 2016
The idea of scale in architectural contemplations reflects on the meaning of the space, also scale connects with urban topology and contemporary ideas of social geography. Social, political, or personal impacts may be seen differently if seen from different point of views: looking from a global, national, municipal, personal, community-based or journalistic point of view.
These new films create spatial contemplations or film essays from Chicago, San Francisco, Berlin, New York, Canada, from a historical literature connection (Kerouac) or even the virtual space of a Si-Fi film series. The screening presents a diversity of films connected with architecture, urban space and landscape from documentary to experimental, and will create an interesting visual dialogue about urban space in film.
The Exquisite Corpse Video Project (ECVP) is a unique video collaboration among artists from all over the world, inspired by the Surrealist creation method, the “Exquisite Corpse”. Using the semi-blind, sequential method of the surrealists’ game, ECVP participants create video art in response to the final ten seconds of the previous member’s work. Each member is asked to incorporate these seconds into their piece, creating transitions as they please, until everyone’s vision is threaded together into an instigating final “corpse”. Rather than providing a unitary linear narrative, each participant maintains his/her own style, permeated by the diverse cultural backgrounds.
With works by Alexandra Gelis, Alysse Stepanian, Anders Weberg, Anthony Siarkiewicz, Clemence Demesme, Dellani, Fernando Velazquez, Gabriel Soucheyre, Gérard Chauvin, Guillermina Buzio, John Sanborn, Jorge Lozano, Kai Lossgott, Kika Nicolela, Kim Dotty Hachmann, Krefer, Laura Colmenares Guerra, Lucas Bambozzi, Niclas Hallberg, Per E Riksson, Renata Padovan, Sigrid Coggins, Simone Stoll, Sojin Chun, Stina Pehrsdotter, Ulf Kristiansen
AUJIK is an art concept initiated in 2001 by Stefan Larsson, born in Sweden, lives and works in Otsu, Japan. Works with CGI video, VR, 3D printing, installations, clothes, photos and music/sound. Topics regarding Artificial Intelligence, nature, animism and future visions.
Medienwerkstatt BerlinThe Medienwerkstatt was installed in 2008 by the Kulturwerk of bbk berlin with public funds as a workshop of artists for artists to further their practice and gain valuable skills. Besides the many technical facilities available to users of the Medienwerkstatt, such as the Media Lab and Green Screen room, the media workshops themselves strengthen and interlink mutual support networks among artists.
With works by Jani Pietsch, Verena Kyselka, Maria Köhne, Sandra Becker 01, Poul Weile, Kim Dotty Hachmann & Ginny Sykes, Maria Korporal, Sonia Armaniaco, Lioba von den Driesch, Juliane Ebner, Gup-py, Petra Lottje
Directors Lounge presents works by AUJIK | C.A.R. Video Loungeat the Contemporary Art Ruhr, October 28 – 30, 2016
AUJIK is an art concept initiated in 2001 by Stefan Larsson, born in Sweden, lives and works in Otsu, Japan. Works with CGI video, VR, 3D printing, installations, clothes, photos and music/sound. Topics regarding Artificial Intelligence, nature, animism and future visions.
Been featured at Prix ars electronic, Japan media arts festival, SIGGRAPH, Animago, onedotzero, Museum of modern art, Paris, New York media museum, Cyberfest, Frankfurter kunstverien, Streaming Museum NYC and festivals and exhibitions worldwide. Been collaborating with Mira Calix & Oliver Coates, Liturgy, Christ, Daisuke Tanabe and other artists.
YUKI. 2007. Music by Christ. In YUKI a robot tree and two children are interacting in a snowy landscape and it is hard to tell which one controls who and whether it is a game or a drill. It is inspired by Ocean D. Howells pamphlet “in the playground of Technological Singularity.”
a Forest within a Forest. 2010. Music by Mira Calix. A guide named Nashi narrates the audience journey in an uncanny forest. Nashi states that everything is animated, and that even the things we consider synthetic and artificial are as sacred as plants and stones. She criticizes nature for its inability to develop and praises technology for its flexibility and proclaims that nature should adapt to technology in order to survive.
Impermanence Trajectory: the limb nest. 2012. Music by aujik. Pancomputationalism derives from the idea of a computational universe, which means that the whole universe and all of its elementary particles are a network of a computational system and process. Earlier AUJIK referred to this in terms of natural and unrefined computation but after German AI scientist Jurgen Schmidhuber introduced the more comprehensive view of Panacomputationalism it’s been adapted. In this manifestation called ‘Impermanence Trajectory: the limbic nest’, this idea is explained through a sacred rock located at an ancient Yamabushi area called Ishiyama. A rock consist of approximately ten trillion trillion atoms in a kilogram of matter, electrons scattering and bouncing back and forth making it a very vivid space with a vast computational potential. This rock in particular was discovered by a Yamabushi monk called Gue in 971 and was mainly used for contemplation. They claimed it had huge amount of matter that the called symmetric energy. Yamabushi monks considered them self’s as an isolated cluster and by transcend with this rock they could become a more synchronised entity.
Impermanence Trajectory: stained seed. 2014. Music by Mira Calix & Oliver Coates. AUJIK’s visual manifestation ‘impermanence trajectory: stained seed’ is based upon the idea of Computational Dialectics via Complex Sentiment Systems. By using dialectical values that is the concept and phenomena expressed in terms of conflict, contradiction, opposite, difference, etc. In thought, nature, and society it is the motive force both of nature and of human endeavor, leading to a further trajectory of development. It consists of two subjects: agent X and agent Y. Each subject is exposed to eight different emotional inputs that determine a value. Values are also influenced by four different forces. These forces either combine or divide the emotional values, rendering random outcomes depending on their previous state, their environment, and the state of the other agent. The trajectory starts with an initial state where the two agents plant a seed each. The seed grows according to the emotional states of the agent and the impact of the forces. During the evolution of the seed, the tree – which represents the object – also changes its form and gradually blossoms before it collapses due to a self-inflicted virus.
Polygon Graffiti: an uguisu morph. 2010. Music by Christ. As AR (Augmented Reality) is emerging, art will find new territories in the public space for those who are willing to see it. e.g. Graffiti paintings, which in most cases are considered an illegal act can be viewed in various environments without bothering people who don’t appreciate it. This video presents nine dynamic paintings in three different contexts: Urban, Organic and Nature.
Polygon Graffiti: karakuri cores. 2015. Music by Christ. ‘Karakuri cores’ is the second visualization in a video project called Polygon Graffiti which propose feasible visions of Augmented Reality and libration of art in all realms. By using a comprehensive and vivid form of AR the artist will be able to completely deconstruct any spatial and architectonical elements in the public and private spheres. Precise motion tracking, 3D scanning and GPS grids will enable the artist to rebuild any building or constructions and add their own personal aesthetic to it. This may be implemented as an open source in order to let other people or self aware software’s to contribute and hack the constructions. Titles: 1. Karakuri kween. 2. Beat blocks. 3. Sclerotic cores. 4. the Gu’s 5. Himitsu Kichi 6. Gunkan clouds. 7. Yokai cargo. 8. QAL-GRAF. 9. Mushin transmitters. (Influenced by the book ‘Rainbows End’ by Vernor Vinge)
anxOxna. 2014. Music by Ceephax Acid Crew. Trees structured as a neural network. Axon and Dendrites-branches connecting through multiple forms of synapses. Individually programmed receptors. Flexible synthetic neurotransmitters . Axon terminal with receptive chaos outcome. Post synaptic density calibrated through external sentient impacts. A pan-computational AI-system. This video entitled ‘anxoxna’ depicts six variations of pan-computational synapses. The video will be presented in two formats as a video installation. Physical and Form & Void. This excerpt is from the Physical version. The Form & Void version features the under vegetation of the trees; the roots, rhizomes and underlying connections.
Plasticity Unfolding. 2015. Music by aujik. ‘Plasticity Unfolding’ is based upon an interview between AUJIK member Mana and her ADI (Artificial Deep Intelligence) entity KIIA. KIIA is constructed as an autonomous flexible neural network with vast recursive self improvement abilities. KIIA lacks a physical body, but has created self-awareness emerging from its surroundings and anomalous pattern recognition. Mana asks KIIA if it visualizes itself. KIIA explains that its core is a self evolved limbic system which has a far more complex sentiment system than humans. It is capable of generating emotions and sensations that have never been perceived before. KIIA imagines its limbic system to be resting on a river bed that functions as its nerve system and consciousness simultaneously. KIIA continuously cultivates its system. ‘Plasticity Unfolding’ is an attempt to illustrate this appearance.
Spatial Bodies. 2016. Music by Daisuke Tanabe. Spatial Bodies depicts the urban landscape and architectural bodies as an autonomous living and self replicating organism. Domesticated and cultivated only by its own nature. A vast concrete vegetation, oscillating between order and chaos. Music specially composed by Daisuke Tanabe. Filmed in Osaka, Japan. Influenced by gunkan and metabolism architecture and the video game Katamari Damacy.*
Directors Lounge presents the EXQUISITE CORPSE VIDEO PROJECT vol. #05crisis & utopia | C.A.R. Video Loungeat the Contemporary Art Ruhr, October 28 – 30, 2016
The Exquisite Corpse Video Project (ECVP) is a unique video collaboration among artists from all over the world, inspired by the Surrealist creation method, the “Exquisite Corpse”.
Using the semi-blind, sequential method of the surrealists’ game, ECVP participants create video art in response to the final ten seconds of the previous member’s work. Each member is asked to incorporate these seconds into their piece, creating transitions as they please, until everyone’s vision is threaded together into an instigating final “corpse”. Rather than providing a unitary linear narrative, each participant maintains his/her own style,permeated by the diverse cultural backgrounds. Each individual artist interrogates, via different means, a number of genres, tendencies and strategies. Since 2008, this inspiring process of exchange among artists from around the world illuminates the possibilities of a dynamic collective creation via participatory platforms and new communication technology.
The project has been already shown in galleries, museums, cinemas and alternative spaces of Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK and US. Some of the main spaces that have exhibited the ECVP include the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, Central Gallery in São Paulo, Open Contemporary Art Center in Taiwan, Galerie Carla Magna in Paris, Visual Arts Network in Cape Town, Artists Television Access in San Francisco and Videoformes Festival in Clermont-Ferrand.
The ECVP was initiated in 2008 by the Brazilian artist Kika Nicolela and it has had 5 volumes released. The most recent one, ECVP Volume#5, proposes the theme of Crisis & Utopia.
ECVP Vol.5: 41 minutes
Alexandra Gelis (Colombia/Canada), Alysse Stepanian (US), Anders Weberg (Sweden), Anthony Siarkiewicz (US/Germany), Clemence Demesme (France), Dellani Lima (Brazil), Fernando Velazquez (Brazil), Gabriel Soucheyre (France), Gérard Chauvin (France), Guillermina Buzio (Argentina/Canada), John Sanborn (US), Jorge Lozano (Colombia/Canada), Kai Lossgott (South Africa), Kika Nicolela (Brazil/Belgium), Kim Dotty Hachmann (Germany), Krefer (Brazil), Laura Colmenares Guerra (Colombia/Belgium), Lucas Bambozzi (Brazil), Niclas Hallberg (Sweden), Per E Riksson (Sweden), Renata Padovan (Brazil), Sigrid Coggins (France), Simone Stoll (Germany), Sojin Chun (South Korea/Canada), Stina Pehrsdotter (Sweden), Ulf Kristiansen (Norway)
Directors Loungeat the Contemporary Art Ruhr, October 28 – 30, 2016
The key to understanding Carola Göllner’s works of Michael Caine, is not to contemplate how correctly she figuratively represents him in her works, but rather to realize how his iconographic qualities sustain in the work as a whole. The Michael Caine series of paintings and drawings, which began in 1987, exemplifies many of the stylistic changes and overall artistic development of Göllner.
The more recent projects reflect the return of realism, which can be seen both formally as well as in the interpretation. The subject is freed from his role. The action is balanced with contemplation reflecting the psychological aspect of image and representation, which is relentless but not distant.
German:
Die Serie der „Michael – Caine“- Bilder, die 1987 begann, zeigt beispielhaft die stilistischen Veränderungen und die künstlerische Entwicklung im Werk von Carola Göllner.
Gezeigt werden Arbeiten der letzten Jahre, die sowohl formal als auch inhaltlich die Hinwendung zum Realismus widerspiegeln. Es zeigt sich der psychologische Aspekt von Bild und Bildnis, der Akteur ist sich seiner Rollen bewusst und interpretiert sie mit derselben ironischen Überhöhung, die den B-Filmen zu eigen ist, denen sie entlehnt wurden.
Directors Lounge presents “Flight | forward” by Medienwerkstatt Berlin | C.A.R. Video Loungeat the Contemporary Art Ruhr, October 28 – 30, 2016
Flight | forward
In a time where hate, violence and destruction shape our daily news we would mostly like just to run away. But the question is where to. Our flight forward leads us into the imaginary, into the utopia or into desperation. Against the everyday madness of diverse control authorities and interlinking providers we counterpose the radical transformation. (text: Sandra Becker)
Pictured: Ludo by Lioba von den Driesch
Flucht | nach vorne
In einer Zeit, wo Hass, Gewalt und Zerstörung unsere Nachrichten prägen, würden wir am liebsten weglaufen. Die Frage ist bloß wohin. Unsere Flucht nach vorne geht ins Imaginäre, ins Utopische oder auch in die Verzweiflung. Dem alltäglichen Wahnsinn unterschiedlichster Kontrollinstanzen und Schaltströmungen setzen wir einen radikalen Wandel entgegen. Hass wird zu Liebe und Zerstörung zu Schöpfung. (Text: Sandra Becker)
pictured: Nichts by Juliane Ebner
Programm
Jani Pietsch : Ausgesperrt (2014) Verena Kyselka : Shahbag (2013/16) Maria Köhne : Go (2016) Sandra Becker 01 : Füsse (2015) Poul Weile : BimJam (2016) Kim Dotty Hachmann & Ginny Sykes : healing grounds (2013/15) Maria Korporal : Third Eye Flying (2014) Sonia Armaniaco : Remain In Light | This Is Not a Pipe (2016) Lioba von den Driesch : Ludo (2015/16) Juliane Ebner : Nichts (2016) Gup-py : Hinter der Tür (2012) Petra Lottje : Variation (2016)
Directors Lounge | Das Wahlprogramm Fri Sept. 9, 8pm
the BAIZ, a spot for culture and politics, invited Directors Lounge for a dedicated screening on occasion of the forthcoming elections in Berlin. Thus we compiled a “Wahlprogramm” ( a wordplay as it means election plank, but can also be understood as a programm of/about choices).
The screening will be split into two parts with a little break inbetween.
DL Wahl Programm I
Jacob Podber US Vishneva, Belarus Soviet Union Poland 02:43 2013
Jean Gabriel Périot FR Undo 10 min 35mm 2005
Engin Kilicatan TR Chastity 03:55 2012
Abhilash Vijayan IN The Dual 12:22 2012
Simon Ellis Soft 15 min
Flotser BE Time Life I 0:46 min 2007
Jean Gabriel Périot FR Even If She Had Been A Criminal 9 min 2005
Bryan Konefsky US Fertile Ground Corporate Slug 4min 2010
Usama Alshaibi Allahu Akbar 2003, 5:18 min
DL Wahl Programm II
Max Hattler DE GB COLLISION 2005, Animation,2:30 min
Sirin Bahar Demirel TR Living with Leviathan 11:00 2013
KRONCK (aka Maximilian Gerlach & Jessica Benzing) DE Thank You Third World #1 1 min 2009
Victor Orozco Ramirez MX Reality 2.0 11:00 2012 IA
KRONCK (aka Maximilian Gerlach & Jessica Benzing) DE Thank You Third World #1 1 min 2009
Elías León Siminiani ES The Commute 12min 30s 2009
Flotser BE Time Life II 0:46 min 2007
Kristoffer Rus PL/SE The Big Leap 13:18 2013 GP/ IA
Zaoli Zhong CN A Dangerous Question 05:35 2012
Tokomburu / Ion Papaspyrou and Zisis Kokkinidis GR I Am Not Here Now 09:30 2013 GP
Unknown Imagine 3:36 min
Directors Lounge | Das Wahlprogramm Fri Sept. 9, 8pm
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