Renata Daguerre, As Above – So Below

Directors Lounge Screening, Z-Bar

Thursday, 30. May, 9pm

Directors Lounge Screening, Renata Daguerre, As Above – So Below. Still from
Still from “I find it hard to say”.

Berlin based artist Renata Daguerre presents films and videos from Córdoba, Argentina, Rotterdam and Berlin at a Directors Lounge Screening at Z-Bar.

Many of Renata Daguerre’s films are essentially portraits. They don’t elaborate on psychological dramatization, rather, we could call them short vignettes of individuals who live in current time, and who often appear to be unadapted to ordinary life, in one way or the other. The artist at the same time likes working with analog material, super-8 or 16mm, or with an analogue video synthesizer. The reason for her choice is the way analogue recording (or processing) changes the appearance of the image, but also for the physicality of the material. All of the films are being presented as digital video.

Daguerre studied Audiovisual Arts at the National University of La Plata, and discovered analogue film during her last years. However, in Argentina, it is really difficult to get analogue films and there are no labs to process it. Thus, coming to Europe created an opportunity to expand her interest and to first work at the film laboratory Filmwerkplaats – Rotterdam, then at LaborBerlin.

Directors Lounge Screening, Renata Daguerre, As Above – So Below. Still from
Still from “Achter de geraniums zitten”.

A woman in Rotterdam tells about the different personas she’s adapting during different times of the week, while they both, filmmaker and protagonist, visit the postmodernist areas of Rotterdam. She even has different names for the different personas. (“Achter de geraniums zitten”). In a similar setting, a person who is into music, dance and colors, takes Renata onto the street at Swinemünder Brücke in Berlins. An earlier film, set in Córdoba, Argentina, seems to be quite different on a first view (El Jardin / The Garden). We are being presented lush vegetation in an extended garden, and then a collection of flowers and herbs, all of which turns out to be the project of a physician of alternative, natural medicine. We don’t see much of his face, but we are introduced to his wonderland, where herbs and plants seem to wildly grow, and paths and signposts seem to lead to mysterious grounds. This film may as well be read as the portrait of an eccentric, same as the two films that take on the form of music clips. Two female singers, each of whom we see perform. “Mi escudo” shows the singer overlaid with blue lights of reflected water. And “I find it hard to say” is set in brown monochrome tones and the beautiful grain of self-developed film. Each vignette, each persona evokes a micro cosmos, a world on their own.

Directors Lounge Screening, Renata Daguerre, As Above – So Below. Still from The electric body.
Renata Still from The electric body.

The second strand of films, of “analog video”, and processed with an analogue synthesizer, appears to be some darker side, connected with darker music, or sounds. “Listen and Repeat” has been purely created with the synthesizer, while “X” and “El cuerpo eléctrico / The Electric Body”) are photographic images that have been processed with different techniques. The first two are rather abstract, non-narrative, whereas the last one, El cuerpo eléctrico, reflects on a medical treatment, which the artist has undergone. While this film is not a portrait, in any ways, it still evokes a whole world on its own, apart from the ordinary.
We are very much looking forward to receiving Renata Daguerre; the artist will be present for Q&A

curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Renata Daguerre on vimeo

Directors Lounge Screening
Renata Daguerre
As Above – So Below

Thursday, 30 May 2024
9:00pm
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte