dates - Page 5 of 15 - Directors Lounge

Guy Maddin | Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity

MONOMULTICHROMALICIOUS!

“Divine” Krumins and “Glorious” Maddin: Directors Lounge supported by twin columns of surrealistic religiosity at Contemporary Art Ruhr
30 October – 1 November 2015

Representing nearly 20 million square kilometres of North American film art breeding ground, Daina Krumins (USA) and Guy Maddin (Canada) have managed to burn feverish holes into the international psyche lying beyond. Already in 1972, Krumins’ “The Divine Miracle” was pitching its silver screen magic carpet ride of saturated colours and religious iconography. Maddin squeezed the devil out of, and the life into, his black and white “Glorious” in 2008, leaving enough for any confessional longing. Here is a yin/yang of image masters, mutually repelling/embracing opposites born of a single visionary cell. Directors Lounge presents a liberal smattering of these two top-shelfers at contempary art ruhr, better known simply as C.A.R. No reason not to be there…

Read more about DL at Contemporary Art Ruhr

Where are we going to? Videoart on the City phenomenon.

Video, discussion, reading, workshop, music and more on different forms and times of social presence and future in the City.

The project is a collaboration with Directors Lounge Berlin

Although the first part of the title that is borrowed by Gauguin and shimmers between pathos and esoteric for today’s eyes, ironically treats the idea to be able to give real answers to this question, but we believe that we can counterpoint it with Willy Brandt: The best way to predict the future is to shape it.

Especially in Dresden within the urban population trenches of incomprehension have been breaking open again about essential future issues. These preclude a bitter required lived and wider civically culture of discourse. Other areas of development, such as imagined future technical or scientific innovations, will not directly be subject of the project, but surely in their intended impacts on the life and work of urban society.

Because of the flexibility and relevance of the medium video works mainly of recent times on the current status and anticipated future developments of urban civil societies will be shown. Tensions will not only be addressed and discussed in the exhibition but in the whole programme. These result from a bondage by the past, from restrictions imposed by the capitalist system or from an individual or cross immobility on the one hand and the unalterable changes, the attempts to form them as a subject, the advent of new and unfamiliar on the other hand.

Distinguishing from purely political statements the project will deal with art, that means openness, indecipherable things, curiosity. The transitions between art and political commitment as well as social intervention by artists are fluent not only in today’s art scene. Of course, it always comes to the great and all. But since the civic dispute revolves not only around the principles of cooperation, but more often to everyday and small mosaic of coexistence, the big issues will also be treated in the artistic contributions that are often based on supposedly minor elements that make up the city and urban society: the kind of movements in the city, nightlife or graffiti, resistance, moral cowardice and intermediate stages, theatre, music, houses, brownfields or gardens. The city as a stage for its inhabitants, for those of the environment, for their guests. The city as a place of work, progress, science. It’s about living, the traffic, the exchange in the city. And about the always new exciting relationships between many in itself differently individual, milieu-, level- or class-related and across experiences, wishes, expectations within the limited geographical and social space of the city.

Although it is important to the curatorial team of the project, as indicated above, to include playfully many different aspects of the city in the discussion within the project. However, a red thread will always be the question of the development of forms of urban coexistence that do not constitute the battle of egos, but concentrate on community-oriented ideas. This includes both political and civic dispute and contention as well as a respect for the principles of mutual communication. But of course, also the knowledge that at these discussions very significantly also the way, the fact that they are lead at all, is the goal. In other words, in particular for the discursive part of the project, in the context with other projects and initiatives the goal is to make a contribution to the conversation in and about the City and its current and future constitution.

Curators: Denise Ackermann (DE), Jolanta Bielanska (PL), Frank Eckhardt (DE), André Werner (DE) (with the collaboration of Julia Murakami and Klaus W. Eisenlohr)

Sponsors: Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz, Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen, Deutsch-Tschechischer Zukunftsfonds, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung

Where are we going to? Videoart on the City phenomenon. 29 Oct – 19 Dec 2015

Motorenhalle. Projektzentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst
Wachsbleichstraße 4a, 01067 Dresden

Vernissage: 28 October 2015, 8 pm
Opening hours: Tue – Fri 4–8 pm, Sat and holiday 2–6 pm,
closed on Sun + Mon

www.riesa-efau.de

Reinhold Gottwald: ohne Titel aus der Serie Quadratur des Kreises

REINHOLD GOTTWALD – ANGULAR PLANETS ON PARADE

We welcome orbiting Berliner Reinhold Gottwald to our flagship universe at C.A.R., in from exhibitions in New York, Hamburg, Den Haag and many stations between. Better it has not been put than by NYC’s “Art For Progress”:

“I was impressed with the overall quality and diversity of the work in the show. The work of Reinhold Gottwald caught my attention. His colorful, small, abstract pieces on wood are hung/arranged as if they are a group of planets sharing the same solar system.” – Frank Jackson – art for progress-NYC

Reinhold Gottwald, born in 1961, lives and works in Berlin. The artist studied at the HfbK Hamburg in the 1980s and implemented a series of exhibitions in the domestic and abroad since then. Mid-nineties he founded the Project Gallery Walden Art Exhibitions that was Prize-honored by the Berlin Senate in 2013.

The theme of the artist is the relation of the individual to the space. The space is defined not only as an architectural or a physical phenomenon it is synonymous with the relationship of the individual to the entire. Reinhold Gottwald combines graffiti with video and installations, whose materials are the result of everyday encounters. The final determination is always done on-site. At C.A.R., Reinhold Gottwald presents informal “Mixed Media” works on industrial wood, which are a result of an accompanying process for his installations. Gottwald´s desire, to keep a development as long as possible open is visible in almost all works of the artist.

The Contemporary Art Ruhr, the innovative art fair in Essen, 30 October – 1 November 2015 at the Zollverein world heritage site.

Watch out for more info soon on our website

Directors Lounge Screening:

James Harrar
Cinema Soloriens Screening

Thursday, 15 October 2015
21:00
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

James Harrar, experimental filmmaker, video artist and musician from Atlanta, Georgia comes to Berlin for this screening. The artist, who mostly collaborates with musicians for live shows under the name Cinema Soloriens, is currently on tour in Europe. His films – and music – take on a lucid form of audio-visual communications with the audience. They are often meditations on beauty, perception, allegory, sensuality and visual phenomena. The material of his videos may be found footage, material he is filming on travels, or dense abstract work that may be digitally created, or just clouds of ink.

Music and film merge together in a trance-like experience for the audience. A kind of lyrical film-poetry that Harrar has pursued since the late 80’s. “Throughout his career, Harrar has tried to give the viewer new visual experiences while challenging fixed notions of visual language and individual seeing. He is exhibiting all over the world at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, Yamaguchi Center for Art & Media and The Andy Warhol Museum to name a few.”

James Harrar will personally introduce his films and perform live soundtracks to them. Curated and presented by Klaus W. Eisenlohr.

Artist Link:
http://www.cinemasoloriens.com
https://www.facebook.com/Cinema-Soloriens-213086542062882/

Links:
Directors Lounge
http://www.directorslounge.net
Details:
http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/
Z-Bar
http://www.z-bar.de
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Directors Lounge Screening:

Christa Biedermann
No One’s Fool – Girl from Vienna

Donnerstag, 24. September 2015
21:00
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Christa Biedermann, an Austrian artist living in Berlin and Vienna, shows animations and performance films. The artist, who eludes any kind of categorization, paints, draws, photographs and makes films and videos, mostly appearing herself in front of the camera. In her videos, she critically and ironically questions society and its demands on the artists, especially on female artists. She thus markedly disappoints expectations of her work as image-artifacts as well as the expected image of her as woman and artist. Even though she hence carries on with the tradition of artists such as Carolee Schneemann and Valie Export, the sources of her inspirations are rather related to actresses and comedians of the 1920’s. Or, as she quotes Tucholsky: “What is satire permitted to do?– Everything!” Always paired with humour, Christa Biedermann will also give some live contributions, playing piano and as live act accompanying some of her films. Curated and presented by Klaus W. Eisenlohr.

(German text:)

Christa Biedermann, österreichische Künstlerin, die in Berlin und Wien lebt, zeigt Videos, Animationen und Performancefilme. Die Künstlerin, die sich mit ihrer Arbeit jeder Kategorisierung entzieht, malt, zeichnet, photographiert, macht Filme und Videos, auf denen sie meist selbst vor der Kamera erscheint. In ihren Videos setzt sie sich auf ironische Weise mit der Gesellschaft und dem was die Gesellschaft von Künstlern, vor allem von weiblichen Künstlern erwartet, auseinander. Diese von ihr in markanter Weise enttäuschte Erwartung mag sich auf das von ihr erstellte Bild-Werk als auch das von ihr erwartete Bild als Frau und Künstlerin beziehen. Werk und Selbstbild werden so zum Artefakt, zum Gegenbild. Auch wenn Christa Biedermann damit die Arbeit von Performance Künstlerinnen wie Carolee Schneemann oder Valie Export fortsetzt, so liegen ihre Inspirationen eher bei Schauspielerinnen und Komikern der 20er Jahre des letzten Jahrhunderts.
Immer mit Humor gepaart, wird sie zu den Filme auch einige Live-Einlagen geben, einmal zu einigen Filmen am Piano, zum andern als weibliche Figur im Film. Kuratiert und präsentiert von Klaus W. Eisenlohr.

Artist Link:
http://christa-biedermann.jimdo.com/

Links:
Directors Lounge
http://www.directorslounge.net
Details:
http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/
Z-Bar
http://www.z-bar.de
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Scream!

Wes Craven, who defined and redined the horror genre, died at the age of 76. R.I.P.

urban research selection

Friday, July the 31st at 9pm
Villino Romualdo — Nori De’ Nobili Museum — Piazza Leopardi, 32 Ripe di Trecastelli, Italy

Ph. +39. 071. 7957851
museonoridenobili@gmail.com

Directors Lounge Berlin

Friday, July the 31st at 9pm at Villino Romualdo in Ripe Trecastelli will be held the final evening of Trecastelli Cinema sotto le Stelle. The first edition of Trecastelli cinema summer festival held for four evenings during the month of July contemporary movies to Trecastelli public spaces. The fifth and final night will host Klaus W. Eisenlohr, one of the Directors Lounge Berlin Festival directors. On this occasion he is presenting a series of short films from around the world that offer hypothetical visions of future cities, movements and developments that take their expression in public spaces, studies of urban spaces and metaphorical images that deal with urban issues.

The mix of documentaries and experimental styles complement each other to create a diversity of ideas that revolve around the theme of urban life.
Urban Research was founded in 2006 and focuses on the exploration of public space, the relationship of urban living conditions and interventions in urban areas made by filmmakers and international video artists who use experimental, documentary, abstract and fictitious techniques.

http://www.museonoridenobili.it/directors-lounge-berlin/

http://urban-research.eu/DL2014/framesUR-MuseoNoriDeNobili.html

Directors Lounge Screening:

Taylor Dunne and Eric Stewart
Mountain Time

Thursday, 25 June 2015
21:00
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Mountain Time – Films from the Interior of North America

Taylor Dunne and Eric Stewart are artists currently living in Colorado (USA). They share an affinity for 16mm filmmaking, they use photochemical processes as a means to explore the interconnectedness of time, history and the landscape. They are currently collaborating on a film investigating the history of uranium mining and nuclear weapons testing in the American Southwest.

The program comprises camera-less films and personal documentaries. They try to connect personal experiences with some parts of the North American landscape, history and nature. All shot in 16mm, it seems they have a mission for simplicity but also for the complications of Native American heritage. The two filmmakers are currently touring Europe with this program, and giving classes for chemical manipulations of analogue film.

Furthermore, on June 24 & 25, Taylor Dunne and Eric Stewart will teach the workshop LIFT OFF: An Emulsion Lift Workshop at LaborBerlin. Please contact LaborBerlin if interested.

The artists will be available for Q&A. Curated be Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Artist Links:
http://taylordunne.com/
https://vimeo.com/ecstaticerratic

Links:
Directors Lounge
http://www.directorslounge.net
Details:
http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/
Z-Bar
http://www.z-bar.de

Directors Lounge Screening:

Clint Enns
Embodying the Intention

Wednesday, 17 June 2015
21:00
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Embodying the Intention: The Selected Works of Clint Enns

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Clint Enns is a video artist currently living in Toronto, Ontario. He originally studied mathematics before changing his focus to the study of cinema and media studies. His work is multifaceted and eclectic, and therefore resists easy classification. Mostly using found material, he manipulates analogue film, screen captures video chats and computer games, transforms videos into ASCI code, uses lo-fi toy cameras, close-circuit feedback and found footage. He has presented his works in festivals and alternative cinema spaces and writes about cinema.

Although his work is primarily short in length, it is intended for theatrical presentation, and not as installation work, single or multi-channel, as most other media artists do. His being in favour for the screening format, and the playful anarchy of his films, reflect also the vibrant micro-cinema culture that exists in both Toronto and Winnipeg: communities that create and discuss films and that are open to a new generation of filmmakers and video artists working in unconventional and non-academic ways (though many established and academic elders contribute to the community such as Guy Maddin, Mike Hoolboom, Phil Hoffman and John Porter, all from Canada) These are the kind of communities that echo the old days of Cinema 16 where Amos Vogel and his peers showed a mixture of avant-garde films, splash films, instructional and science movies together with subversive political films.

In Enns’ work you may find traces of the joyful, deconstructing practice of Nam June Paik, who used magnets and other tools to bend the beam of the cathode in order to distort the television image. Enns nowadays also uses scripting and electronic errors in order to create or alter his images. Still, it seems as if the artist is using a quote of Paik for his work: “When too perfect, lieber Gott böse” (When too perfect, dear God turns angry). With this show at Z-Bar, Clint Enns invites us to a microcosm of electronic and analogue images, which can only be seen as the antithesis to the over-real, sharp, High Definition images, and as an ironic response to some overly serious avant-garde heroes, emblematic of the Cult of the Bolex.

His mathematical studies have not only provided Enns with the knowledge to use algorithms for the creation of his images, but have also liberated some diabolic and playful humor (all out of love), which sometimes requires a savvy viewer to fully read the irony embedded in the image.

Artist Link:
http://clintenns.tumblr.com/

Links:
Directors Lounge
http://www.directorslounge.net
Details:
http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/
Z-Bar
http://www.z-bar.de
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Directors Lounge Screening:

Distruktur –
Melissa Dullius & Gustavo Jahn
perspectives – on moving

Thursday, 28 May 2015
21:00
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

A program of shorts by the artist couple Melissa Dullius and Gustavo Jahn with some new and rare films. Distruktur – Dullius and Jahn – claim a space fluctuating somewhere between the big and small cinema. Consequently working with analogue film while shooting and mostly also developing their own material, their films seem to create a kinematic time-space that is distinct from the ordinary even though they often use film settings of daily life.

The films could be described as experimental-narrative, as they use script, actors and often costumes, both artists often act as protagonists of their own film, but they avoid the conventional dramaturgy of mainstream and its psychological realism that mostly leads to melodrama. The film “Abril (2002)” in some short scenes seems to be a direct quote of Maya Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon”. It is an early film, from the time when Melissa and Gustavo were not working together as directors and which has not been shown in Berlin, yet. The moment of “trance” – or mystery – though disappears and becomes resolved as it did not really happen, as it is just a memory that stays but cannot be explained in rational ways.

Time seems to be ambiguous in the movies of the director duo. Even though Triangulum (2008) and Time Machine (2015) are set “in the future” as the narrated texts explain, they make no direct references to science fiction movies. The action does not pretend to be from the future, but the time of the narrative could be the past, the present or the future. Are we looking into the future, or looking back from the future to the past, to the present?

This ambiguity gives the film Triangulum, which is set and was shot in Cairo and Alexandria, an interesting contemporary perspective. With the background of the more recent “Arabic Spring”, the radical political movements in Egypt and wars in Near East – and the not so long ago longing for a mythical Orient prevalent in the West, the film has a surprising actuality.

It will be even more interesting to think about the references given in the films of the program, as Melissa and Gustavo have more recently created films that could be placed in the past. Not in any exact historical past, but in a past of myths. “Don’t Look Back ⁄ Labirinto”(2014, German Premiere) has been filmed in Berlin and obviously references the antique theme of Orpheus, while “In the Traveler’s Heart”(2013) was shot in Nida, Lithuania and seems to present a protagonist from an indigenous Latin American background. However, the narrative time of both do not try to create a realistic story. Time does not seem to proceed as a clockwork – on a narrative timeline, nor does it seem to be a dream. The image seems to be contemporary and timeless at the same time. This ambiguity of time, space and narrative the artist couple is creating, together with the atmospheric image of hand processed analogue film makes a unique viewing experience with many possibilities of interpretations.

Artist Link:
http://distruktur.com

Links:
Directors Lounge
http://www.directorslounge.net
Details:
http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/
Z-Bar
http://www.z-bar.de
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