Directors Lounge presents:

The Destructive Power of Happiness
Video and Film Works by
RICCARDO IACONO
Thursday, 23 September 2010
21:00

Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Riccardo Iacono, London-based artist and filmmaker, presents a selection of films and video from three different bodies of work: abstract videos, hand-painted films and performance tapes (produced between 1993-2007).

“I like the destructive power of fire”, a friend stated to Riccardo. It became the source for the title of the show in Berlin. Riccardo’s fire might be his anarchistic disposition to destroy static concepts. However, he does not avoid the pains, the exhaustive efforts it takes to make art from “happiness”.

In his process of working with film, the painted film became the silent musical score for the making, the re-photographing of the film. By means of an optical printer, he developed a way to have light reflected from the 3-dimensional surface of the paint, while at the same time still illuminating it from the backside. Although such animation techniques usually are tedious work, Riccardo already tried to achieve some immediacy while printing film to film. This urge for directness, and a need for improvisation and contact with people have possibly let to his more recent body of work: “Shooqui”. The whole series of videos, which involves throwing peas or clothes, is the opposite of camera-less film. The artist holds the camera, aiming and tracking the prospective trajectory of the object being thrown by his other hand. The body connection between holding and throwing leads to a compulsive and circular movement of the camera when throwing larger objects. “It is almost like the recoil action of a gun upon firing.”
(Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr)

Programme
From Memory 1994-2003 16mm, colour silent 15.00
Open 1994/2003 16mm optical sound 2.30
Fuzzy Lover 2003 16mm B/W silent 2.10
Pea Video 2006 DV colour Stereo 2.00
More Light 2004 DV colour Stereo 4.55
Recess 2007 DV colour stereo 1:00
P-Sample 1 2006 DV colour Stereo 2:45
Play 2001 DV colour stereo 3:50
The Electric Garden 2004 DV colour Stereo 5.55
Radiator 1994 DV colour stereo 4:15
Roadside Mix 2006 DV Colour stereo 1:31
Cold Tape 2000 DV colour stereo 1.11
Kinky 2006 DV Colour stereo 1:45
Walk 2001 DV Colour stereo 3:30
A Lecture In Throwing A Pea 2006 DV colour Stereo 1.00
Universe Energies Sustain Us 2002 DV colour Stereo 14.00
Elephant 2007 DV colour Stereo 7:30

Artist-Links:
http://www.riccardoiacono.co.uk
http://www.axisweb.org/openfrequency/riccardoiacono

Detailed program info:
http://www.richfilm.de/filmUpload/1-framesRiccIacono.html
http://www.riccardoiacono.co.uk/exhibitions/DL_berlin230910.html

http://www.z-bar.de

spectres of light
film works by
jari Haanperän

Friday, 13 August 2010
21:00

Galerie Meinblau
Pfefferberg
Christinenstr. 18/19
D-10119 Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg
U-Senefelder Platz

Jari Haanperän
Film Works

Jari Haanperän lives in Berlin and together with Mirka Flander, his producer, he is running the gallery Suomesta. With his installations, Jari Haanperän takes up and further develops the idea of the Light Space Modulator by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Although Jari’s film works on the other hand appear very different to the abstract spirituality of Moholy-Nagy’s light machine, the two constituting elements seem to be the constant source of inspiration for artist and filmmaker Haanperän: light and the spirited machine. However with Jari, these elements seem to evoke their opponents: darkness, which is needed for the effects of light, or lumen, and the darker forces.

Maybe, in order to deal with darkness and those darker forces, we also need storytelling, dark humour and irony. At least, this is what Jari Haaperän is doing in his film works: he tells short stories. In several of Jari’s films, the story goes back to the mechanical age: “The Turkish Chess Machine” refers to the famous “Schachtürke”, a mechanical Robot made in Austria in 1769. In “Kalavalo”, on the other hand, the artist gives a surrealist vision of the first deep-sea exploration undertaken in a spherical steel box by biologist Charles William Beebe in 1930. This saying, don’t we see the mechanical age as the succeeding period of enlightenment?

In his most recent film work, the documentary “World of Light”, however, there may be the hint for a turning point: Although the images all show images of dark spaces lit by multitudes of lights, in the narration a different idea emanates: what, if there will be too to many lights, too much light? Could it then be, that the future spectres will no more live in darkness but lie in light overflow, in over-lightenment? Like Jari, we still love the dark caves of cinema. (Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr)

Programme:
• Indoor Light
• KALAVALO
• The Dark Side of the Car
• The Turkish Chess Machine/Die Turkische Schachmaschine
• Bang
• World of Light

Artist Link:
Link  http://www.jarihaanpera.com/
More Programme Details
Link  http://www.richfilm.de/filmUpload/1-framesJHaanperan.html
Gallery Meinblau
Link  http://www.meinblau.de

presents:

Aline Helmcke

Time—Framed

Friday, 16 July 2010
21:30

Galerie Meinblau
Pfefferberg
Christinenstr. 18/19
D-10119 Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg
U-Senefelder Platz

Programme
Films by Aline Helmcke
Reanimation, 2003, 3:49min (D)
animation exercises, 2004, 1:51min (D)
Destrukt, 2006, 2:20 min (D)
bus ride, 2007, 2:14 min (UK)
pavement, 2007, 1:27 min (UK)
Kamo Gawa, 2008, 4:33 (CH/UK)
58 Pages, 2008, 6:26 min (UK)
Rehe blicken nicht nach oben, 2010 Preview at DL !!, 6:55 min (D)

Guests
Hei Cheng, Boiling, 2007, 3:40 min (UK/JP)
Martin Morris, Reaction, 2004, 4:00 min (UK)
Matthias Beckmann, Keine Tricks, 2008, 14:13 min (D)
Pia Maria Martin, Go, 2004, 12:00 min (D)
Joe King & Rosie Pedlow, Strange Lights, 2010, 8:08 min (UK)
Toby Cornish, Sarajevo Vertical, 2004, 10:20 min (UK/DE)

Aline Helmcke either uses the drawing pen or the camera to create her film images. Her last film, “Rehe blicken nicht nach oben”, was realized with actors, scriptwriting and a tangible narration. The drawings, however, are based on photographs, or better saying on media images. The movement that derives from the differences of images ­ the animation, as we call it ­ though emphasizes the movements of drawing itself and the differences between one line and another line, but it rarely creates the illusion that we know from other animation films.

What we thus may find here, is the wonderful hesitation of a young artist amongst a world of an rapidly accelerating flood of media images. The hesitation, the slowing-down, may already be a result of the painfully slow techniques of film drawings. (“I think I can call myself a filmmaker now, something I always strived for.” A.H.)

Anyhow, Aline Helmcke conceives images of a poetic hesitation in her films, and it is well worth following their progression and unfolding, thus contemplating Aline’s out-drawn thought process. A series of films from different artists, selected by the Aline Helmcke, completes the program, all of them either exploring drawing or being composed with frame-by-frame photography. The artist will introduce the program and be available for Q&A. Please feel invited.

Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Artist Link:
http://www.ahelmcke.com/

More infos:
http://www.richfilm.de/filmUpload/1-framesAline.html

Urban Research Selection 2010
Screening at
PAm Festival in Senigallia, Italy
08 July 2010, at 20:00

GALLERIA GHERARDI 30
Via Gherardi 30 – Senigallia

urban research selection | urban interference and the city’s symbols

The success of modern cities as social entities is connected with the liability of relative security and trust in the social contract between citizens. As Jan Philippe Reemtsma states: “If I happen to drop into a violent situation, I will neither be made responsible for not being armed, nor for having failed to defend myself.” (memory-quoted). Although this unwritten contract is part of the production of modernity, urban identity, myths and symbols often tell about violent situations. Therefore, films talking about urban symbols often deal with the uncanny, with the precarious balance between the violence of law enforcement and violent social decay.

On the other hand, with urban interventions, artists try to play a more active role in society . Some artists see themselves as “political activist” and try to change politics and society; others just try to reach a different, more divers audience; or, they like to reach out for a seemingly impossible dream. All of them, however, share visions and ideas about urban life. And those inspirations may be infectious!
Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Program:

Elsewhereness: Yokohama 2008 -*- Anders Weberg SW
Zwischenzeit 2008 -*- Mischa Leinkauf + Mathias Wermke DE
Seven After Eleven 2008 -*- Christina McPhee US
Buda -*- Beatriz + Carlos Matiella MX
Sintia -*- Jose Matiella+Ivan Meza MX
Amusement Park 2001 -*- Pilvi Takala FI
Jalkeilla Taas (Up And About Again) 2009 -*- Maarit Suomi-Väänänen FI
Drive 2003 -*- Elena Näsänen FI
Drive! 2008 -*- Elham Rokni IL
Easy Rider2006 -*- Pilvi Takala FI
Simulacro 2005 -*- Hector Falcon MX
Play Ground 2009 -*- Rinat Edelstein IL
Night Meter 2000 -*- Yaron Lapid UK
Interception 2007-2009 -*- Roch Forowicz PL
Stormwater / Estanque de tormentas 2009 -*- Tom Skipp ES

Festival Program: http://www.pamfestival.com/programma/
Direct Link:
http://www.pamfestival.com/videoproiezione-di-klaus-w-eisenlohr/

Urban Research 2010: http://www.richfilm.de/DL2010/framesUrbanResearch.html

Z-Bar, Thurs, 24th

Film and Video are media of time, maybe even more so than any other medium. The frozen time, the preserved time, as well as the composed time are even more constitutive for experimental film and art videos than for narrative film. Not only Deleuze pointed out, that film at it´s height is “temps-image” instead of “movement-image”, though he referred to European narrative cinema; also Peter Kubelka stated: “film is not movement, quite the opposite, while projecting film, every thing is being undertaken to technically prevent showing the movement of the film strip”. It is time, however, to bring together some Berlin friends of experimental film and Directors Lounge, and under the headline of “time”. Please come and meet the artists; many of whom will be present, at the program at Z-Bar Berlin.

Directors Lounge at Z-Bar, Thursday, 24 June 2010, at 21:00

The program comprises films and videos by Aline Helmcke, Andreas Gogol, Dagie Brundert, Deborah Phillips, Heiko Daxl, Ingeborg Fülepp, Jens Lüstraeten, Klaus W. Eisenlohr, Max Hattler, Myriam Thyes, Sandra Becker 01, Telemach Wiesinger, Thorsten Fleisch, Ute Reeh

Directors Lounge Screenings in der Z-Bar
präsentiert:
Within Landscape and Time
Video Works by
Elena Näsänen
Mittwoch, 26 Mai 2010
21:00

Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Elena Näsänen
Video Künstlerin aus Finnland

Die große Leinwand, das große Kino und das Bild von Natur in Cinemascope sind Bezüge für Elena Näsänens Video Arbeiten. Sie ist eine der wenigen Künstler, die ausschließlich mit Video arbeiten, und die zudem selten auf der Kinoleinwand zu sehen sind. Stattdessen findet die Öffentlichkeit die Arbeiten der finnischen Künstlerin in Galerien und internationalen Kunstausstellungen.

Ihre Filme beinhalten Strukturen des narrativen Kinos: zu den meisten ihrer Videofilme hat sie das Drehbuch verfasst, es spielen Schauspieler, es gibt einen Kameramann und manche enthalten den Spannungsaufbau möglicher, unheimlicher Erlebnisse, wie sie die Zuschauer in Horror und Kriminalfilmen erwarten. In “Before Rain“ (Vor dem Regen) benutzt Elena Ausschnitte aus Hollywood Krimis, die jedoch nicht aufgelöst werden; in „Night“ (Nacht) folgt die weibliche Hauptfigur ihrem Drang, das Haus bei Nacht zu verlassen und den nahe liegenden dunklen Wald zu durchstreifen; und in „Wasteland“ (Ödland) ist eine Gruppe von Frauen im Hinterland Australien unterwegs, deren Aufgabe und Schicksal am Ende unbekannt bleiben. Überhaupt sind fast immer Frauen die Protagonisten der Szenen.

Zwei andere Elemente zeichnen Elenas Arbeit jedoch mindestens in ähnlich starker Weise aus: Zeit und Natur. Zeit ist gänzlich verbunden mit dem Bild. .Zeit wird ambivalent, wird zur Filmzeit, die entweder still steht oder endlos dauert, ganz abhängig vom Betrachter. Auf der anderen Seite scheint Natur die Szenerie zu dominieren. Vielleicht ist es so, dass Elene Näsenen hier den Blick auf das erhabene „Andere“ wieder aufleben lässt. Natur, so wie sie das unbekannte Andere für uns Bewohner der Städte wurde.
(Kuratiert von Klaus W. Eisenlohr)

Artist Link:
http://www.elenanasanen.com

Directors Lounge
http://www.directorslounge.net
More infos and video stills:
http://www.richfilm.de/filmUpload/1-framesElenaNasanen.html

———
ENGLISH TEXT:

Directors Lounge Screenings in der Z-Bar
presents:
Within Landscape and Time
Video Works by
Elena Näsänen
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
21:00

Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Elena Näsänen
Video Work

Elena Näsänen’s reference for her work on video is the big screen, the glory of grand cinema, and with that, the picture of nature in cinemascope. She is one of the few artists who work exclusively on video, and who are rarely shown on a cinema screen. Instead, the audience finds her work in art shows, galleries and international exhibitions.

The films of the Finnish artist who lives in Helsinki contain structures of narrative cinema: most of them are written by the artist, are played by actors, and they are building up a suspense of uncanny possible occurrences, which the audience anticipates to happen. In “Before Rain” Elena uses fragments of Hollywood crime movies that stay unresolved, in “Night” a female character follows an urge to leave the house at night searching through the adjunct woods, and in “Wasteland” a group of women are on their way to an unknown task and destiny.

There are two other elements, however, that seem to mark Elena’s work just as strongly: time and nature. Time is strictly connected with images. If her images stay in our memory, their time seems to persist, thus making time ambivalent, a “film time” that stands still or becomes endless, depending on the viewer. Nature, on the other hand seems to dominate the image, and Elena’s characters. Maybe, Elena Näsänen here revives a contemporary view onto the sublime other: Nature as it has become the unfamiliar other for us city dwellers. And this mystery may be contained by the Australian outback, the Chinese yellow mountains, or the Finnish landscape.
(curated by Klaus W. Eisenelohr)

Artist Link:
http://www.elenanasanen.com

Directors Lounge
http://www.directorslounge.net
More infos and video stills:
http://www.richfilm.de/filmUpload/1-framesElenaNasanen.html

Elle Burchill, F.Y.S.

Richard O’Sullivan, Fragments of the Los Angeles River

The Urban Research Loop Program is shown on different screens and different days, each. On request, it is also possible to set certain films up on screen.

part 1:

Anna Staffel DE Documenta 12 13min 23sec 2009

Ashley Pigford US Providence 3min 04sec 2007

Chris Henschke AU Walls of Berlin 1min 00sec 2010

Christina McPhee US Tesserae-Yellow Tahiti Substation Foods 4 Less 3min 48sec 2009

Elham Rokni IL Drive! 1min 32sec 2008

Elle Burchill US F.Y.S. 7min 36sec 2007

Ivar Smedstad NO mekanisk<->organisk 5min 06sec 2009

Katerie Gladdys US Stroller Flaneur 4min 00sec 2009

Konstantinos-Antonios Goutos DE after caspar david friedrich  8min 14sec 2007

Marina Chernikova NL Urban Surfing  03min 10sec 2007

Pablo Useros ES Found People Movements – Descend, 5 Nov Plaza Castilla, The Human Race 11min 00sec 2009

Pablo Useros ES Found People Movements –The Human Race 11min 00sec 2009

Pablo Useros ES Found People Movements –5 Nov Plaza Castilla 11min 00sec 2009

Paul Clipson US CHORUS 7min 00sec 2009

Pierre Yves Clouin Fr Crossing 1min 13sec 2008

Rinat Edelstein IL long distances 13min 38sec 2007

Sari Carel US Olive Glove 8min 10sec 2009

Wilfried Agricola de Cologne DE Radio Flyer 5min 20sec 2009

Wilfried Agricola de Cologne DE Urban.early sunday morning_raw 4min 30sec 2007

part 2:

Adam Kossoff UK Not Our Darkness 25min 05sec 2009

Arne Bunk DE bühne:wolfsburg 15min 00sec 2009

Felix Lenz DE “What is a Minute, Lumère?” 48min 00sec 2009

Lothar Schuster DE Fensterblicke 30min 00sec 2009

Michael Schuwerk US Happiness is the Right Choice 13min 51sec 2009

Richard O’Sullivan  UK Fragments of the Los Angeles River 46min 00sec 2009

Simon Tarr US Giri Chit 14min 21sec 2009

David Gunn / Guillermo Brown UK Open Cities / Porto (excerpt) 06min 00sec 2009

For more information and videostills about the Urban Research Loop Program
click here!

Fri 19th 6:00 pm

With urban interventions, artists try to play a more active role in society than just showing in a gallery space. The reasons and aims can be manyfold. Some artists see themselves as “political activist” and try to change politics and society; others just try to reach a different, more divers audience; or, they like to realize a seemingly impossible dream. All of them, however – even if the respective intervention is just the presence of the recording camera – share visions and ideas about urban life, on how to connect life, soul, street, architecture and society. And those inspirations may be infectious, beware!

Tom Skipp ES Stormwater / Estanque de tormentas 14min 23sec 2009

Jeanne Liotta US sutro 02min 53sec 2008

Vassiliea Stylianidou DE/GR Im Park 08min 30sec 2009

Clemens Fürtler A BILDMASCHINE 03 04min 30sec 2010

Riccardo Iacono UK Missing 04min 12sec 2007

Paul Clipson US CHORUS 07min 00sec 2009

Roberto Duarte DE/CL Reflektionen 06min 50sec 2009

Mischa Leinkauf + Mathias Wermke DE Zwischenzeit 06min 32sec 2008

Patrick Tarrant AU Stepping Down 09min 30sec 2010

Pablo Useros ES Found People Movements – This is a Political Film 10min 06sec 2009

Anja Abele DE Institut Orange: Die Geh Dreh Schau Bewegung 00min 31sec 2009

Anja Abele DE Institut Orange: Das Ticket Stempeln 00min 56sec 2010

Roch Forowicz PL Interception 05min 20sec 2007-2009

Vassiliea Stylianidou Im Park

For more information on the Urban Research program
Link click here: www.richfilm.de

Thurs 18th 6:00 pm

The success of modern cities as social entities is connected with the liability of relative security and trust in the social contract between citizens. As Jan Philippe Reemtsma states: “If I happen to drop into a violent situation, I will neither be made responsible for not being armed, nor for not being able to defend myself.” (memory-quoted). Although this unwritten contract is part of the production of modernity, urban identity, myths and symbols often tell about violent situations. The films in this program trace the uncanny in contemporary settings, they show hidden and small stories, which may remind us about how delicate that construction is, a balance between the opposite dangers of enforced order and violent social decay. Does it wonder that the selection presents films from Israel, the United States and one about Berlin?

Hadas Tapouchi IL Moel Yad 6min 00sec 2009

Keren Zaltz IL Mall 5min 55sec 2008

Elham Rokni IL Drive! 1min 32sec 2008

Kevin Jerome Everson US Ike 02min 25sec 2008

Esther Podemski and Chuck Schultz US 5 Days in July 10min 00sec 2008

Dominic Angerame US Premonition 23min 00sec 1997

Kevin Jerome Everson US Second and Lee 02min 47sec 2008

Sergio De La Torre US Nuevo Dragon City 14min 00sec 2008

Charles Chadwick US Genetic Reclamation Area 05min 48sec 2008

Christina McPhee US Seven After Eleven 07min sec 2008

Rinat Edelstein IL Play Ground 06min 58sec 2009

Christina McPhee Seven After Eleven

For more information on the Urban Research program
Link click here: www.richfilm.de

Tue 16th 6 pm

Zsolt Keserue HU “Dreams Come True” 24min 00sec 2009

Zsolt Keserue Dreams Come True

In Dunaújváros, a city inhabited primarily by workers, most forums of culture are practically unknown to the majority of the population. The number of puplic spaces that feel authentic to young people are – similarly to any settlement of this size – meagre. Thus, what is left is playing music together, primarily in a genre wich, once stood for freedom but is, by now, barely definable, wich speaks to “everyone”, and seeks directness in its lyrics: rock music.

Only garages have offered a suitable site for rehearsing; it is there that bands gather to make music after working hours. Their attitudes regarding this fact are very varied: merciless self-critique, hope concealed by disillusionment; great and confusing plans can be found in parallel within the same band. There are some for whom garage music is self-actualisation in itself, others hope for large stages and audiences of ten thousand people. Upon taking a closer look at the community, we can also discover an interesting mesh of dynamics: passions, “master-apprentice” relationships, perfectionism, envy – almost everything that would come into play in a “high stake game” milieu. In this particular niche, a strange flavour is added to the mix by the fact that most of the bands play almost only for themselves.

The first interviews were made in 2002 involved 16 bands whose members spoke about their past, their everyday lives, their plans, and their ars poetics. When, in 2008, on the apropos of a garage rock festival, the interviews were continued, only 3 of the 16 bands were still active, and with significant changes as regards band members. The film endeavours to explore the system of relationships within this community, examining the reasons and motivations of those who dedicate their time, energy and considerable sums of money to this particular experiment in self expression which, under the diguise of a hobby, promises the realisation of the rock and roll dream, and which, more aften than not, is doomed to failure.

For more information on the Urban Research program
Link click here: www.richfilm.de