Directors Lounge Screening:

Gabriel Lyons Loeb
Poems & Trampolines

Thursday, 31 October 2013
21:00
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2

10115 Berlin-Mitte

Gabriel Lyons Loeb is in love with pixelation and other digital artifacts as other artists are with the “Wabisabi” of Super-8, and the illuminating technical flaws of “spaghetti-style” developed small gauge film. For years now, he has used an old mobile phone camera to explore his surroundings and the media. He combines his poetry with video “blow-ups”, either coming from his own footage or from footage appropriated from the internet. One may ask if it is his love for a specific aesthetic, or if it is an artistic-bohemian gesture to use the cheapest material and a look that we usually regard as an internet-related shortcoming. It may be both, however, there may be a third motivation: in his final years at university he studied the effects of endless repetitions of footage he found on youtube and other transformative experiments, mainly by exposing himself. As earlier avant-gardists and pop-Artists such as Bruce Conner and Andy Warhol already found out, repetitions have a changing effect on our cognition and psyche.

His film “you smell good now” the longest film in the presentation may have a similar effect on the mind, even if not by repetition. It is a semi-narrative, semi-documentary style blow-up of 176x144px footage of Ann Arbor in winter. Shot during his partner’s three day visit, the film occurs in his favorite places. The fictive characters explore the town in an adolescent flaneurship sometimes becoming a passage à l’acte. In other parts of the film, they seem to conceive spontaneous lines of poetry from their experiences.

“wintersgarden” is another film shot in winter time, this time all around the place where he has lived for a year in Berlin-Neukölln. This time, it is a fuzzy portrait of “Körner Kiez” in winter colors and the chance-encounters on his walks. It uses another technique we know from analog filmmakers: it is edited in-camera, but then combined with big letters that for the viewer may or may not come together as a winter poem. The program will be completed with a number of poetry related films, some of which the author made on demand as part of a service previously offered through his website.

Gabriel Lyons Loeb will be present for Q&A. Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Artist Links:

http://gabrielloeb.com/

Links:

Directors Lounge

http://www.directorslounge.net

Z-Bar

http://www.z-bar.de

Full program details:

http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/

Directors Lounge Screening:

ANJA DORNIEDEN & JUAN DAVID GONZALEZ MONROY
From Eye to Mouth, from Mouth to Eye

Thursday, 26 September 2013

Anja Dornieden and Juan David Gonzalez Monroy have dedicated themselves to avant-garde film and work together for several years, strictly with 16mm and Super-8.

At the same time they often address society-related questions in their films, with phenomenas ranging from the relation between hypnosis and psychoanalysis, from the nostalgia about East-German puppet houses, to spatial imaginations connected the term private sphere. As members of the Labor Berlin, they have created their own facilities to develop film, but also produce 35mm copies of some of their films. Working with film for them also means to extend the possibilities of single film projection towards a layering of projections, which becomes a performance by itself, in former days also called Expanded Cinema.

Anja Dornieden and Juan David Gonzalez Monroy will be present for Q&A. Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Thursday, 26 September 2013
21:00
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Artist Links:
http://www.ojoboca.com/

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

 Directors Lounge Screening:

Chris Henschke

Experimental Capture

Thursday, 29 August 2013

21:00,Z-Bar

Bergstraße 2,10115 Berlin-Mitte

Chris Henschke was artist in residence at the Australian Synchrotron in 2007-2008 and 2010, and his work has been much influenced by the desk to desk collaborations with scientists since then. Lately, he was also invited to the famous CERN in Switzerland, which hit the news for the probable discovery of the Higgs boson. Henschke sees many similarities between the work of artists and scientists, but he also sees a mayor difference in the perception of experimentation: “empirical science is based upon observation and measurement of repeatable experiments; however, in a phenomenological sense every experiment and observation is unique.”

In his work, Henschke on one hand documents his experiences at the Synchrotron, and combines it with visual observations and re-edits the footage in experimental ways. On the other hand, he started to do his own experiments with high voltage with a diversity of objects. Third, and possibly another way of experimentation, he plays electronic music and creates visuals that combine camera images with effects driven by the music.

Chris Henschke will be present for Q&A. Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Artist Links:

http://www.topologies.com.au

http://sacrit.blogspot.de/2010/11/chris-henschkes-synchrotron-art.html

Links:

Directors Lounge

http://www.directorslounge.net

Z-Bar

http://www.z-bar.de

Program details:

http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/

Directors Lounge Screening:

Monika Rechsteiner
Reality Check

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

Monika Rechsteiner’s films are metaphors of spaces, which unfold over the time of their viewing.

Firstly, they seem to be long panorama travels over photographic stills. This unfamiliar and possibly uncanny reduction seems to go against expectations of movement and depth in films. However the camera travels further onto different picture planes and different points-of-view. The films present frames and skeleton constructions of buildings, unfinished ruins or uncanny city panoramas, which seems to unfold from the inside. At the same time, the written or spoken discourse leads towards a completely different level. While discussing art and the production of art, or the unfolding ticker-news about Fukushima in 2011, we still are lead to a self-reflection of our perceptions. The realistically recorded and presented spaces thus turn into metaphors, into mental constructions. The program presents more well-known pieces such as „To Be Continued“ (about Tokyo-Fukushima) and „Wie von Selbst“ (As If By Itself), but also less known short works that originated in Super-8 and digital video.

Artist Links:

http://www.echtzeitverdichtung.org

Links:

Directors Lounge

http://www.directorslounge.net

Full program details:

http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/

Z-Bar

http://www.z-bar.de

Directors Lounge Screening:

Txema Novelo
Visions from Mexican Underground

Thursday, 27 June 2013
21:00
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2, 10115 Berlin-Mitte

Txema, artist from Mexico who just finished his Emare Residency in Bourges will present his newest video „Still Movie“, and a selection of his works related to Vale Vergas Discos, his music label involved with Mexican underground music.

Txema usually works with 16mm or super-8 and each of his films is related to a music piece starring the musicians. However, unlike commisioned „music videos“, these films show the artist’s visions for the tunes, the videos taking up a life and a story for themselves, and mixing urban life, images of nature and mythology. „Still Movie“ will be presented for the first time in Germany, as work-in-progress with 4 of 5 planned chapters of tribute to Walter Schmidt a largely influential first generation Mexican punk musician. Txema Novelo: ‘I share the same church as Dan Graham: „Rock’n Roll is my religion“’

The artist will be available for Q&A.

Artist Links:
http://www.valevergasdiscos.com/

http://yau.com.mx/artists/txema-novelo

Links:

Directors Lounge
http://www.directorslounge.net

Full program details (upcoming):
http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/

Z-Bar
http://www.z-bar.de

Directors Lounge Screening:

Lior Shamriz
Beyond Love and Other Things to Do

Thursday, 30 May 2013
21:00
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Berlin Premiere of „Beyond Love and Companionship“ and program of shorts. Lior Shamriz, who just premiered his new film at Oberhausen presents a selection of works from 8 years of filmmaking in Berlin and Israel together with his newest film.

Artist Links:
http://www.spektakulativ.com

Links:

Full program details:
http://www.richfilm.de/currentUpload/

Z-Bar
http://www.z-bar.de

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

Directors Lounge Screening:

Anna Okrasko
video works and selected films

Thursday, 28 March 2013
21:00 Uhr
Z-Bar
Bergstraße 2
10115 Berlin-Mitte

Anna Okrasko confronts modern Dutch urban environments with ephemeral everyday stories. In Sobota/Saturday/Zaterdag, the artist worked with a group of young Polish immigrants in Rotterdam, making them act for the camera instead of interviewing them. Interviewing them, according to Okrasko, would just have made them respond to the bad public image Polish workers have in the eyes of Dutch people. Rather, she wanted to show the way they live and the urban environment they live in. Using Polish documentary films from the late 50’s as an inspiration, she has them explore the city, playing games, just killing time and finally gathering at their home. As these early post-war documentaries are the artist’s favorite films, some scenes of Sobota/Saturday/Zaterdag are even quotes from those films, making it even more interesting to present them together. Another part of the program will be a glimpse into Untitled (Ik kijk naar de film) a work-in-progress about a quarter in Utrecht, “Kanaleneiland”. This quarter was part of a massive urban expansion plan of the city of Utrecht in the 60’s but soon after became almost exclusively occupied by emigrants, it used to be seen as a no-go area for people of Dutch origin, however nowadays it is under rapid change, hosting many students, artists and an artist residency program. Though not finished, Anna Okrasko shows stunning images from that area and the beginning of a story of “a tramp” looking for a place to stay.

Anna Okrasko, polish artist who lives in Rotterdam, Netherlands currently works as an artist in residence at Programme ABA (Air Berlin Alexanderplatz) with Mondriaan Fonds grant. Since she came to Holland, she became more and more interested in the issue of contemporary Polish immigration in the Netherlands.

Especially with the combination of some films from the past, Anna Okrasko not only addresses the issue of contemporary labor migration inside the EU, but the question how the contemporary society on one hand sells the dream of freedom via consumer products, and on the other seems to limit growth by xenophobia and the costs for education. It may be interesting to take Okrasko’s ideas further and compare the limits, chances and goals for young Europeans in the societies of the 50’s and today.
Anna Okrasko will be available for Q&A.
Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr.

Artist Links:
http://www.okrasko.blogspot.de
http://airberlinalexanderplatz.de/
http://www.mondriaanfonds.nl/

Links:
http://www.directorslounge.net
http://www.richfilm.de
http://www.z-bar.de

More Detailled Program Infos:
http://www.richfilm.de/filmUpload/1-framesOkrasko.html