Directors Lounge 2007

CHRONICLE live at RAW

2007-11-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

• Directors Lounge and W(h)at Is Jazz proudly present:

Raymond Salvatore Harmon with theChicago Underground Trio

a 'film concert' at the RAW Tempel

Sun November 18th, 9pm, doors open at 8pm.

RAW Tempel - Revaler Str.99 - Friedrichshain

Chronicle, Raymond Salvatore Harmon´s feature length performance film with the Chicago Underground Trio, was a visual and musical highlight of Directors Lounge 2007.

Now, the Chicago Underground Trio and director Raymond Salvatore Harmon will turn the concert film 'Chronicle' inside out and perform a 'film concert' at the RAW Tempel

Chronicle is unlike any music/film performance made to date. Expect an evening verging into the psychedelic, both sonically and visually.

expand for a teasing video

A Summer Evening With Sheri Wills

2007-09-20T06:05:00.000-07:00

Amazing musicality and intensity in color are the foremost impressions of Sheri Wills' films. At the same time they speak about the beauty and fragility of the microcosm that surrounds us, and in our daily life, barely catches our attention.

Having started off with super-8 and 16mm films, and the endless possibilities of an optical printer, Sheri Wills still uses photograms as starting point of her films, however, she now also uses found footage, lens-based images and digital technology in combination with this "earliest and simplest photographic technology".

On a closer look, one could also say, the films of Sheri Wills evoke memories, illuminated memories without pointing to a specific time, or reference in the past. Rather, they are passageways in a territory of synthesized memories. If there are (according to Roland Barthes) signifiers without significants in language, one could then say, Sheri Wills' pictography is an artistic mnemonics without significants in the past. The colors and shapes, as abstract as they may appear still maintain a reference to the physical world. Their mere beauty and rhythmical structure, though, give them the quality of unresolved deja-vues. Bergson's view of a simultaneously present existence of the past and the presence comes into mind. In this concept, Sheri Wills' image making would be the presence of memories, which extend into the future while ignoring the logic of a time axis. Her films evoke memories of forgotten dreams, of childlike awe, of the "earliest cinema" of Brakhage, while rubbing your eyes. Even the used found footage does not point to a specific time period, although we can read traces of a timed fashion. Thus, Sheri Wills, in her own genius way, has made the leap from "movement-image" to "time-image" (Deleuze). Memory does not have to talk about past; memory and image associations may as well be about the present or the future. However, they definitively live on in a different time mode.

Sheri Wills deep interest in contemporary music has also led to congenial collaborations with young modern composers. Viewing her films thus becomes a synesthetic experience of color, form, rhythm and music.

The program will consist of 16mm films and digital video projections.

a summer evening with sheri wills
curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr
Friday, 21 September 2007, 9 pm Z-Bar, Berlin, Bergstr. 2

memory in motion

2007-09-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

MEemory in motion, art in the public space takes place in Munich these days. To give you a little idea about what´s going on in rainy Bavaria wé add this feed to serve ou some snaps from the show.

meet us if in Munich

Cocoon and other Swan Songs — Felice Naomi Wonnenberg

2007-08-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

Kvetshing (Complaining) to Gertrude Stein, Video performance, 1 min, 2007

Felice Naomi Wonnenberg's video work is a unique, sometimes surrealist collage inspired by Jewish thought and political and gender issues. It combines in an intriguing manner Middle-Eastern reality with European cinematographic aesthtics. The Tel Aviv and Berlin based artist has been showing her video works and experimental films internationally since 1998, among others at the Directors Lounge, Berlin (2005), in the MoMA Museum of Modern Art New York (2007), The Israel Museum Jerusalem (2007), the Jewish Film Festival Berlin and in Goethe Institutes worldwide. She was awarded the ARTE / 3Sat prize for artistic innovation, her work was repeatedly screened on 3SAT (German speaking art TV channel) and in over 30 international film festivals. In 2001 she graduated from the Masterclass of the Berlin Art Academy (HdK Berlin – UdK) (the highest degree in visual art in German art academies). She has been living and working in Israel and Berlin as an artist, art critic and in museums since 2005. Her experimental films are shot on 16mm film (a format launched in 1923, used by surrealist and dadaist artists and later in WW2) and she also works with digital video.
pressrelease

Video Art and Experimental Films
by Felice Naomi Wonnenberg

curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr
Sunday, 26 August 2007, 9 pm Z-Bar, Bergstr. 2

expand for film details

some of the films included:

Jewel Garden
experimental documentary, digital video, 10 mins, 2006

"...a delightful...wonderfully inventive film and...great addition to our program"

writes William Sloan, curator of MoMA - The Museum of Modern Art, NY

Portrait of an old 2nd-hand jewelry dealer on Berlin's shopping-mile Ku'damm. In an uncut 9 min. close-up shot, the camera glides over the glittering necklaces, war medals, Jewish Chanukah candlesticks, worn-out wedding rings and other broken dreams on sale. We never get to see the dealer, but we do hear him chat about his theories on love.

Cocoon, Performance on digital video, 9 mins, 2007

Some young men wander in the desert. In a cave they make the chance discovery of a giant cocoon with female content... In the encounter the young men devour the cocoon, but then as they penetrate into it they do not even realize that the content of the cocoon is a woman. Their actions appear as a fickle mood of fate. The men destroy the woman's fragile protective wrap for a moments' culinary pleasure and leave her behind - deprived of her protection, desinterested in her fate.

Cocoon is a video that brings visual inspirations from Man Ray's nude photographies and the sexy armpit from Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali's Chien Chien Andalou onto a feminist panel. The viewers' sexual expectations are first stimulated and then playfully led ad absurdum. The cocoon is the poor worm's / woman's longing for transformation, the attempt to withdraw from the world in order to emerge as a new magnificent self.

As in many of Wonnenberg's films the puzzling sexual encounters between man and woman remain unsatisfactory. Both parties do not recognize the others needs and desires and their physical contact remains at once naive and yet cruel and destructive.

The location of the scenes is a metaphysical place in itself: Cocoon was shot on location at the caves of Qumran in the Judean desert on the shore of the Dead Sea, where in 1947 a Bedouin boy discovered, by coincidence, the oldest surviving Torah scrolls.

The Orient through Western Eyes
video collage, 8 min, 2007

A video collage juxtaposing clips from early silent movies to modern fantasy blockbusters to show how the West has constructed its own image of "the Orient". This art video commissioned by Israel's biggest art museum The Israel Museum Jerusalem was shown in conjunction with its exhibition Eden- East and West. It is a critical visual analysis of the West's cinematographic fantasies of "the Orient". The Middle East and the Land of Israel were an important locus of Western longing, curiosity, fantasy, and apprehension of the “Other”, and these feelings were articulated visually by many artists. This art video juxtaposes clippings from existing footage of Hollywood movies, from their beginnings in the early days of silent movies (such as DeMille’s monumental biblical epics) to contemporary fantasy Blockbusters (such as The Lord of the Rings). The visual confrontations demonstrate how the West has constructed its own image of "the Jew", "the Arab", "the Orient" or -in brief - the necessary and fondly hated "Other" for its own psychological needs.

A Turtle‘s Life in the Middle East, 16 mm and Super 8 black/white and color, 10 mins, 2003
3Sat / ARTE Prize for Artistic Innovation

This is an experimental documentary about fear and how to deal with it after a terror attack. The basis of the film is the childhood memory of a Palestinian, in which the need of protection turned into perverted and absurd violence. The child confronted his seeming enemies, the turtles. "I declared war on turtles...Until they were dead. Then I‘d be very satisfied.“ Contrasting this are an Israeli‘s angry comments. He cannot stand his German girlfriend's questioning him about terror attacks, which she needs for her documentary film, anymore. The images of the film stand in contrast to the interviews: a group of nervous birds and architectural shots of a prison relay the fear that the narrators struggle to repress. The film ends in bitter words juxtaposed with pictures of hope.

A Summer Evening With Oliver Whitehead

2007-08-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

Oliver Whitehead — films from 1967—2007

Oliver Whitehead from Helsinki, who recently showed his work in a retrospective at Cartes Flux Festival in Espoo/Helsinki, comes to Berlin to show his work at Z-Bar.

Oliver Whitehead has explored a wide range of fields within arts, such as drawing, painting, photography, computer imaging, film, video, installation, and sound stretching their expressive possibilities, and without respecting boundaries. He thus may be called a ³true media artist². In his early film work, he was influenced by the uprising Film-Coop movement in England and the French Nouvelle Vague. He however stopped making films when coming to Helsinki in 1970, where he since has worked as artist, and partly at Kuva Academy, the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki.

In 1991, he has picked up with film and video again, now exploring his personal and built surrounding in most unorthodox ways. In most recent years, film and video have become a main focus in his work.

see "bike" by Oliver Whitehead on directorslounge television

As in "bike", where the camera travels along the shore of the city of Helsinki, his film work mostly evolves from captured impressions. Here, he depicts glances on people, traffic and architecture, edited in an Allegretto rhythm of movements. The film thus reflects the intrinsic meanings of a different but daily perception of urban life and the built surrounding. In "visual violence", a camera travels through contemporary interior public spaces and, as in other films, the captured immediate impressions tell about sensations, which are both political in their direct relationship to the body, and metaphorical in the ways they become examples of a 'bigger picture' of meanings in the world. The films thus are less part of a simulacrum made by the media but they are reflections on visual and media perceptions, and the ways our contemporary and vernacular surrounding can be read in meaningful ways.
In Whitehead's later work the subject matter comprises the structures and users of urban settings(...) The visual idiom and the overlaid soundtrack give the works a politically slanted narrative dynamic. The meaning of the films, on the other hand, arises from the combination of cinematography, editing, repetition and thematic combinations. These have an inherent political dimension in the works in that they oppose the solutions typical of commercial cinema." (Hanna Johannson)

With two films, Oliver Whitehead was already part of this year's Directours Lounge and some further Urban Research screenings. Now, we are proud to be able to give a more deep insight in his film and video work, and have the artist present his work at Z-Bar. The screening will be the opening of further summer screenings of Directors Lounge in August and September 2007.

german text here

Oliver Whitehead — films from 1967—2007
Sundag, 12 August 2007, 08:30 pm
Z-Bar, Bergstr. 2, Berlin-Mitte

Am Rande...

2007-06-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

• on the edge Pyramide, Berlin June 1 - 29, 2007

In the back Staan by Frans van Lent, reflected Misa by Yoel Díaz Vásquez

An exhibition by Directors Lounge at the Exhibition Centre Pyramide in Hellersdorf.

click pics to enlarge

expand for some more snapshots, read more about Am Rande.. here and here (german)

Inside this very strange building

Misa by Yoel Díaz Vásquez

Pistolen by Wolfgang Spahn

Construct (Two Momemts in Beauty) by Maja Borg

To The Limit by Andreas Sachsenmaier

more pics to follow

don´t miss the second screening Friday, June 15 9 pm

location details here

Tami Seinfeld

2007-05-24T07:28:00.000-07:00

With great pleasure do we announce that the beautiful lady pictured here joined Team Directors Lounge on Tuesday as a cognitive mentor. Not much bigger than a Katz she will become a great asset for the future of the whole cinematic universe.

Stadtrandzone Mitte — Center of Urban Periphery

2007-05-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

• Berlin Premiere Sat. 19th May 07, 9 pm Z-Bar, Berlin

still from STADTRANDZONE MITTE, 16 mm, 42 min, 2005

How should public space be defined, in our times? - this question has been the point of departure for Klaus W. Eisenlohr's project in Hannover. The resulting film by the Berlin filmmaker and artist takes the viewer on a visual trip through the larger urban area of Hannover and shows portraits of places of various urban qualities.
This visual and spatial exploration is being complemented with investigations of "place-making": Public interventions by artists, scenes of everyday public life played by youths, and conversations with local city planers converge in a multi-facetted reflection on public space. In cinematography and visual montage Klaus W. Eisenlohr has accomplish his own personal film language, based on experimental documentary and avant-garde film. Thus, the filmmaker has conceived a complex film essay about everyday urban spaces in the modern European city. more

expand for german text

"Was ist öffentlicher Raum heute?" Diese Frage stellte der Filmemacher und Künstler Klaus W. Eisenlohr an den Beginn seiner Recherche über Hannover. Der entstandene Film nimmt den Zuschauer mit auf eine Bilderreise durch öffentliche Plätze im größeren Stadtgebiet der Landeshauptstadt.

Mit filmischen Mitteln entstehen Portraits von Orten unterschiedlicher urbaner Qualität. Den Berliner Filmemacher interessieren jedoch nicht nur die sichtbaren Merkmale, sondern auch die Handlungen und Erzählungen, die öffentliche Räume erst entstehen lassen. Weiter geht er der Frage nach, durch welche Eingriffe/Interventionen öffentliche Orte aktiviert werden können. Künstlerische Handlungen, die Reaktionen herausfordern, Inszenierungen von Alltagsbegebenheiten mit Jugendlichen und Begegnungen mit Stadtplanern sind im Film den Stadtbildern gegenüber gestellt. Sie fügen sich zusammen zu einem filmischen Essay über alltägliche Orte einer exemplarischen Stadt der europäischen Moderne.

Der Film entstand im Laufe des 6-monatigen Kunstprojektes Stadtrandzone Mitte in Hannover, bei dem Klaus W. Eisenlohr weitere Künstler aus Berlin, Stuttgart und Hannover einlud, an unterschiedlichen Plätzen Performances zu inszenieren. Überdies entstanden Szenen, indem er mit Jugendlichen aus Jugendeinrichtungen szenische Workshops durchführte. Das Projekt wurde unterstützt mit dem „Cast&Cut“-Stipendium der Stiftung Kulturregion Hannover und der nordmedia Fonds GmbH, mit einem zusätzlichen Zuschuß des Kulturbüros der Landeshauptstadt Hannover.

Samstag, 19 Mai 2007, 21 h Z-Bar, Bergstr. 2

Eintritt 4, ermaessigt 3 Euro

• Sat. 19th May 07, 9 pm Z-Bar, Bergstr. 2 U Rosenthaler Platz

Urban Research at Urban Explorers

2007-05-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

• Noordkaap Dordrecht - Rotterdam 12 + 13 May 2007

Thanks to Katja Diallo/ Noordkaap, a selection of Urban Research, one of the major programs of Directors Lounge, can be presented during the Urban Explorer festival in the project rooms of Noordkaap, Dordrecht, NL

NOORDKAAP // U.E. // PROGRAMMA 11 T/M 13 MEI // FILM Een selectie uit het internationale filmfestival Urban Research, ondersteund door de Directors Lounge Berlin. Curator Klaus W. Eisenlohr

click pics for more

related

expand for full program

Zaterdag 12 en zondag 13 mei 11h.-18h. in de projectruimte

Roger Warren Beebe - Strip Mall Trilogy,9:15, USA , 2001

"The Strip Mall Trilogy" is a series of three city symphonies that attempt to liberate color, sound, and form from the sprawling consumerist landscape of postmodern America. Part 1, 'Green Means Go,' presents fragments of color over a musique concrete soundtrack composed of sounds recorded at the strip mall. Part 2, 'The Abecedaire,' wrestles (and later plays) with alphabetic form extracted and abstracted from the signs of commerce of which they are normally a part. Part 3, 'X-formations,' tries to argue that there is, in fact, beauty after strip malls. Let's hope so.

Julie Murray - Detroit Park , 8:00, USA 2005

Michigan Theatre was an elaborately decorated theater at the heart of a busy and vibrant downtown Detroit in the 1920s. The advent of television in the 1950s saw a significant drop in public performance attendance and it was finally closed in 1967. Sometime in the 1970s it was converted into a parking lot, where floors and ramps were installed with only the most necessary intrusion upon the old interior. Murray's camera is driven by impulses of awe and reflection. In Detroit Park she does not celebrate the 'good old times' but she rather encompasses future and past in one movement that reveales otherwise unseen layers of overlapping times in the urban mesh.

Edita Stepien, Margaret Noble - Sonata , 18:09, USA 2006

Interested in the collaborative fusion between audio and video, analogue and synthesized, Margaret Noble and Edyta Stepien decided to explore these dichotomies through a contemporary reinterpretation of the classical form 'Sonata.' Through the sounds and imagery of architecture and nature, this piece examines our current environmental conditions. Modeled on a pictorial score and recorded as a live performance mix, "Sonata" alternates between nature and urban industry in the settled terrains of the American Midwest.

Katerina Sedá - There is Nothing There , 14:00, CZ 2003

Ponetovice. A village close to Brno in Czeque Republique. No post office, no school. One Saturday in May, everybody in town is doing what they usually do on Saturdays; except this time artist Katerina Sedá directed the inhabitants like a real life video game into a synchronism of the ordinary. The film gives a multitude of ideas on the problems and chances of being on the verge between rural and urban life. From the questionaires handed out to the citizens of the village Katerina found out that all families spent Saturdays in the countryside in a similar way. She also discovered that nowadays people from a village live with a certain skepticism, they feel as if all the important things happen in the city and say 'there is nothing' in their village.

Vrijdag 11 t/m zondag 13 mei vanaf 21h. window screening

Seppo Renval - Rumpu Zinfonia , 21 min, FIN 2005

The camera meanders through artificial architectural space: architecture models. All the models represent exsisting buildings in Helsinki. The camera speeds up, the low-resolution video quality and lighting create sensations of real space, of emotional space. Thus, the film reinterprets the imagination and conception of materialized architecture, or more so, the ways architectural space has been depicted before being realized.

Kemmy Thyssen - In'na City , 7:23, DE, 2005

In 'na City seeks for harmony, connectivity between images and music. A collage with images from the City of Hannover ‹ skyscrapers, traffic, the surface of the city and its mesh ‹ that creates a composition, a new vision. Images and colours become music and rhythm, which complement sounds and beats. Everyday space and vernacular modern architecture are the matrix of pulsing music.

Virgine Laganiere - The Corridor, 2:26, CAN, 2005

A corridor, passage way between offices, becomes the internal and visible projection of the outside city. Dream, hope or halluzination? Virginie Laganière shows, with very dry humor, imaginary metamorphosis of the daily urban environment.

Ivan Martinez - Fear Itself ... Yea Right , 7min, USA 2006

"According to the media and government officials we have much to fear, despite what FDR once proclaimed. With anxiety on the rise, running scared is all we have left, at least to warn others of the impending doom. This custom animation and action script allows me to frantically run through the streets typing out my fears for all to know in real time. If needed my character could stop running to converse with someone on the street, but when fear strikes, its off and running again." Fear Itself, by Miami based Ivan Martinez, is a street art projection using custom action script in which he runs scared through the streets typing in his fears which are then projected on building facades. The works combines concepts on the running tiger of Karolina Sobecka´s Wildlife, previoulsly mentioned here and Paul Notzold´s "What/Who Are You Afraid Of?". According to Wooster Ivan started in August doing guerrilla projections of images on the new building developments that are appearing in and around downtown Miami.

2007-05-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

• call for proposals Munich end of July 07

art in the public space, Munich, end of July 07

• Memory In Motion – new ways of commemoration

Memory In Motion will present media art that seeeks for new ways of remembrance by using the public space as a stage to challenge the neglecting of history with artistic means. The urban space, that makes history visible as architecture, offers the oportunity to connect artistic questioning with concrete history.
Memory In Motion is an intervention into the public space that question the handling of the past, the construction of historiography, the attribution of identity, social and ethnic codes and their reflection in society right there where such a basic discussion should start: in the public.

Public space is not a fixed space, it is everywhere, constantly in change, consequently we will be a project in motion, using different spaces for different works and different questions.

• Memory In Motion – call for proposals

We welcome any proposal for Memory In Motion, be it a site specific work or an existing film, installation, whatever that could fit into the concept. Get in touch and we´ll send you the link to the project pages.

• Memory In Motion – accompanying program

Memory In Motion will be accompanied by related screenings, we hope to realize a catalogue and/or a DVD to document the whole project.

For a german version go here

Alli Savolainen • video art from Finland

2007-05-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

• Z Bar Bergstr. 2 Sat. May 5th, 9pm

Special Screening May 2007 Alli Savolainen

Directors Lounge kindly invites for a personal show of video work by Alli Savolainen
curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Alli Savolainen will come from Finland to present her video work.

Alli Savolainen works with video, photography, sound and painting. She was born in Joensuu, Finland, and she graduated from Lahti Institute of Fine Arts. Since 1986, she is active as artist in Helsinki’s art and film scene. She since has compiled an impressive catalogue of video works which date back until 1989. When writing about her own work, she tells that she is interested in “time continuity and memory”. Saying that, she takes the viewer into a contemplation of the duration of visual moments.

In more recent times, Alli Savolainen looks with her camera at cities, street scenes and rural roads, still interested in the poetry of the non-spectacular, vernacular visual environment.

She lives and works in Espoo, Finland. (Metropolitan Area of Helsinki)

• Z Bar Bergstr. 2

• Berlin Mitte, U-Bahn Rosenthaler Platz

N•E•M•

2007-03-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

Happy B-day, Nadya

Today´s the happy day for Nadya Cazan, the iconic beauty who represents Directors Lounge abroad. Even so she couldn´t join the Lounge in person she´s an essential part of the gang. Not only behind the scenes, but also quiete visible as one of our main flyers is based on her photograph. (Go here for the original.)

buon compleanno from the whole Team DL.

Sun 25th: This will be the last time

2007-02-25T09:40:00.000-08:00

• all night long assorted gems for the eyes and for the ears

Hot Jazz and Cinelicious Tidbits

The hottest jazz in town, Les Haferflocken Swingers turning the Lounge upside down

Sunday will be the very last night to enjoy Directors Lounge.
Join us for an assortment of fine films, delicious cocktails and the hottest jazz and swing outside of New Orleans.

Sat 24th: Soy Thomas • Soy Cuba

2007-02-24T09:21:00.000-08:00

Happy B-day, Thomas

Thomas, member of the gang since the very first days, chief bartender of Directors Lounge and acclaimed master of the mochito is celebrating his birthday tonight.
One more reason to join the fun before it´s over.

Cheers from the whole Team DL.

Fri 23th. Les Haferflocken Swingers

2007-02-23T10:34:00.000-08:00

•22 h • 10 pm Les Haferflocken Swingers Sweat, chaos and voodoo cirqus!

Hot Jazz and Gypsy Music from Berlin

the proper way to handle the bass; Flocko Motion of Les Haferflocken Swingers jamming with Markus of Don Bad´Habong during the Farewell night.

Sweat, chaos and voodoo cirqus! "Les Haferflocken Swingers", a international Berlin based Party Jazz troupe, hypnotize with hot'n'dirty Jazz.

Schweiss, Chaos und Voodoo-Zirkus! "Les Haferflocken Swingers" begeistern mit dem dreckigsten Hot-Jazz Berlins.

Formed back in October 2001 by Jimmy Monahan, Suk Mortalis and Flocko Motion as the "Rabbiz of Breaktanz", soon renamed as "Haferflocken Swingers", they started playing cheap Klezmer and Hot Jazz. Though in the beginning they sounded more like a screeching bunch of chainsaws out of tune, people were soon able to unplug their ears and even smile during their wicked performances.
Their journeys have driven them to many countries with their crew constantly changing, performing with weirdos and nutmegs from all over the universe.

Im Oktober 2001 von Jimmy Monohand, Suk Mortalis und Flocko Motion als "Rabbiz of Breaktanz" gegründet doch bald zu "Haferflocken Swingers" umbenannt, begannen sie billigen Klezmer und Hot-Jazz zu spielen. Am Anfang klangen sie wie ein Bündel kreischend verstimmter Kettensägen bis es irgendwann den ersten Leuten möglich war, während der Performances ihre Ohren zu entstöpseln oder sogar laut zu lächeln. Ihre Irrwege katapultierten sie durch aller Herren Länder, mit stets wechselnder Besetzung aus kaputten Halbtalenten und Pseudo-Affen performierend und perforierend.

Visual Poetry • Ann Noel and Emmett Williams

2007-02-20T11:36:00.000-08:00

Emmet Williams and his longtime companion Ann Noel performed on May 24th, 1997 at the Kurt Tucholsky memorial, Castle Rheinsberg. Hinrich Peters filmed the event on location. This short impression of Emmett Williams performing life with Ann Noel was screened subsequent to the presentation of the ZEBRA poetry and film awards in honour to Emmett Williams who died on Wednesday, 14th of February in Berlin.
Click on the pictures to see the video.

Jan Hermann has posted a conversation with Emmett that gives an additional insight and is worth a reading. snippet:
"I was a pretty good bartender once," he went on. "And foreman of a landfill project. I can wield a mean axe in the forest, too. Yes, I'd call myself a poet before anything else, though I wouldn't call it my occupation. Call it my preoccupation. Making poetry is the thing I've always done, or wanted to do, whatever else I was trying to accomplish. The thing that interrupts whatever else I'm doing. A 'disturbance' that I can't tune out."

DL 07 • Extended

2007-02-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

night view

• Directors Lounge 2007 • The Extended Version • One More Week

We are pleased to announce that the Lounge stays open for one more week.
Expect assorted highlights from Directors Lounge as well as cinemaic surprises. Don´t hesitate to bring your own movies.

Publikum erzwingt Verlaengerung! Noch eine Woche lang besteht die Moeglichkeit taeglich ausgewaehlte Perlen der Directors Lounge 2007 in gepflegter Atmosphaere zu geniessen. Ueberaschungsfilme aus unserer Sammlung werden das Programm abrunden.

shortly before screening

Honouring Emmett Williams

2007-02-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

Emmett Williams, artist and poet, died the day before yesterday, February 14, 2007 in Berlin. Emmett Williams, who collaborated with Daniel Spoerri in the Darmstadt circle of concrete poetry from 1957 to 1959 was the European coordinator of Fluxus, and a founding member of the Domaine Poetique in Paris, France. His theater essays have appeared in Das Neue Forum, Berner Blatter, Ulmer Theater, and other European magazines. Williams translated and reanecdoted Daniel Spoerri's Topographie Anecdotee du Hasard (An Anecdoted Topography of Chance), collaborated with Claes Oldenburg on Store Days, and edited An Anthology of Concrete Poetry, all published by the Something Else Press (owned and managed by fellow Fluxus artist Dick Higgins in New York and Vermont). In 1996 he received the Hannah-Hösch-Preis for his life work.
To honour Emmett Williams we will screen the short video work Emmett 06 by fellow Fluxus artist Wolf Kahlen subsequent to the presentation of the ZEBRA poetry and film awards, tomorrow, Sat 17th around 9:30 pm.
Emmett 06 will be screened in world premiere.

Emmett Williams, der US-amerikanische Dichter, Perfomance-Künstler und Mitbegründer der Fluxusbewegung, verstarb vorgestern, Dienstag dem 14. Februar 2007 in Berlin. Er war Präsident des Internationalen Künstlermuseums in Lodz. 1996 wurde er für sein Lebenswerk mit dem Hannah-Höch-Preis der Berlinischen Galerie ausgezeichnet. 1966 veröffentlichte er den erotischen Gedichtband "sweethearts", der zu seinen wichtigsten Werken zählt, und 1992 sein autobiografisches Werk "My Life in Flux – and Vice Versa". Seit 1956 experimentierte Emmett Williams mit seinen Procedural Poems, ohne einen Computer zu benötigen − er ersetzte die Buchstaben des Titels des zu schreibenden Gedichtes durch zufällig ausgewählte Wörter, so dass sich daraus wie durch ein Computerprogramm ein künstlicher Text generierte.
Als Würdigung seines Werkes zeigen wir morgen, Samstag 17.2., im Anschluss an die Präsentation der ZEBRA film and poetry awards die Videoarbeit Emmett 06, des Freundes und Künstlerkollegen Wolf Kahlen.
Emmett 06, 2006, 4 min. wird in Weltpremiere gezeigt.

Tonight: The Making Of • Mi wed 14 02

2007-02-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

•18 h 30 • 6:30 pmThe Making Of a film by Viola Stephan

a documentary about vision, neuroscience and filmmaking

• Viola Stephan DE The Making OF 86 min, 35mm, 2005

How creative is science ?
How objective is filmmaking ?
Seeing is believing - a documentary about vision, neuroscience and filmmaking

Ein heiterer Essay ueber die Verbindung von Denken, Wahrnehmen und Kino, Kopfkino im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes, das anregt, Kino anders zu betrachten, als wir es bisher taten: Denn Film ist nicht nur Unterhaltung, sondern die Quintessenz unseres Denkens und Fuehlens, eine Analogie, die uns letztendlich tiefer zu uns selbst bringt.

Joachim Kurz

Starring Andreas Oehler, director of Hunger nach Heimat, to be screened afterwards.

In attendance of Viola Stephan

Tonight: Animate Locate • Mi wed 14 02

2007-02-14T19:32:00.000-08:00

• 22 h • 10 pm Animation curated by Kim Collmer

Animate Locate

It is all about location- locations which give us comfort or discomfort, allow us to imagine, to laugh, squirm, locations that transport us or bring us quickly, and sometimes harshly, back to reality. Again we present animated shorts from stop-motion to pure CG. Highlights and emerging artists from all parts of the world will give an overview of the actual state of this specific genre. Curated by Kim Collmer of "Forming Motion" fame.

• Virgilio Villoresi and Vivì Ponti IT Fridgedaire 5 min 41 s, cut-out, 2005

Frigidaire is a stop motion animation about the birth, transformation, death and resurrection of a young girl. A hand takes her through a mad trip inside the house "Frigidaire". We took images from old magazines from the 40's-60's and from our reasearch of old books. The video is made with the collage technic and the sound is made by cuttings of old film. This is our first video together.
Virgilio Villoresi and Vivì Ponti

Animate Locate

• Johannes Nyholm SE The Tale of Little Puppetboy

4 min 20 s, stop motion, 2005

• Virgilio Villoresi and Vivì Ponti IT Fridgedaire 5 min 41 s, cut-out, 2005

• Meredith Root US Anxiety Invention 3 min, hand-drawn, 2006

• Norma V Toray US Army of Me 4 min 8 s, mixed media, 2004

• Anita Allyn US Imaginary Lines 2 min 20 s, DV, 2005

• Thessia Machado BR/US Today I'm Here 48 s, pixellation, 2006

• Eric Dyer US Copenhagen Cycles 6 min 35 s, zoetrope, 2005

• Kim Collmer DE/US Berlin Skin 2 min, mixed media, 2007

• Cecilia Lundqvist SE Making Pancakes 4 min 58 s, hand-drawn, 2005

• Hei Cheng GB Board 1 min, stop motion, 2005

• Lisa Barcy US Mermaid 15 min, stop motion, 2007

• *David Shrigley/ Chris Shepard GB Who I Am And What I Want

7 min 20 s, hand-drawn, 2006

Looped before and after the show:

• Johannes Nyholm and Jen DeNike SE/US Fever Dreams Shot footage and animation, 2006

• Fawn Krieger US New World cut-out , 2004

some faces

2007-02-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

more snapshots of the cinematic crowd

devoutly listening to the words of Cosima Reif

expand for more

The enchanting Mrs Pure Chance, Cosima Reif, while illuminating prepotenz as well as ingenuity, that may sparkle in the eyes of the young Viennese lads.

Catherine Forster of LiveBox Chicago with fellow director Galina Schevchenko

Kim Collmer, artistic curator of Animate Locate (14.2. 10 pm)with friend Jennifer

Longest F. Stein of gallery KMZA during his presentation of video pioneer Wolf Kahlen.

Video pioneer Wolf Kahlen discussing his work after the screening.

Video artist Vadim Schaeffler who´s work Motion is on display.

Joppel, projectionist of the Lounge teaching director aE3 the future of revolution.

It isn´t unusual that some guests start to sing for no specific reason. Shown here is Phips of Raga Gaga Gang fame.

Nice Bombs tonight at 8pm

2007-02-12T07:11:00.000-08:00

Director Usama Alshaibi, who loves to pose with guns, during the shooting of Nice Bombs in Baghdad

Usama Alshaibi was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1969. His work in film and video has been screened at numerous film festivals and venues across the United States and abroad. He has completed one narrative feature titled Muhammad and Jane, and more than thirty shorts.
Usama is the founder and Director of the Z Film Festival and film/video curator for specialized screenings that have received critical accolades. In addition to reaching an ecclectic audience with his video and film work, Alshaibi's photography has been included in several print and web publications.
Usama and his wife Kristie Alshaibi returned to his birthplace in Iraq to shoot his first feature documentary titled Nice Bombs. In 2004 Usama became co-owner of Artvamp, a multi-media production company founded by Kristie.

To see the trailer of Nice Bombs

Usama Alshaibi US/IQ Nice Bombs 92 min, DV, 2006 mon 12 02 8pm

opening snaps II

2007-02-10T09:07:00.000-08:00

some more snapshots from the opening

Director Andreas Gogol, he will present his work on tues 13 02

Djane Hatifa Zou

Multimedia artist and video pioneer Wolf Kahlen, his work will be presented tonight.

André Werner and Andreas Gogol

all pictures by Klaus W. Eisenlohr

Dancing The Night Away

2007-02-09T10:28:00.000-08:00

some drunken snapshots from the opening

The hottest Swing around, played by Don Bad´Habong

Mistress in charge, Ania from Team DL

Multimedia artist and director aE3 explaining the world of cinema shortly after his arrival from Nantes

a cozy corner in the lounge area

Don Bad´Habong still playing even so they couldn´t stand anymore

Dancing the night away, Djane Hatifa Zou and Marbo Becker, actor and founder of the Rote Loge

more snaps to follow

Willkommen • Bienvenue

2007-02-08T20:08:00.000-08:00

Join us at the Opening Night

Willkommen • Bienvenue

still from AV RU Dubus 4 min 9s, DV, 2005

Join us celebrating the opening of the third Berlin Directors Lounge 2007 with Heavy Swing by Don Bad´Habong, Loungy Tunes by Djane Hatifa Zou, cocktails and cinelicious tidbits.

Feiert mit uns die Eroeffnung der dritten Berliner Directors Lounge 2007 mit Heavy Swing von Don Bad´Habong, den Loungy Tunes von Djane Hatifa Zou, Cocktails und guten Filmen.
Die Türen öffnen sich um 20 Uhr für eine Nacht voller Überraschungen.

welcome cocktails

Enjoy some teasing compilation from all flavours of this years Directors Lounge 2007
Geniesst Begruessungscocktails als Einstieg in die Directors Lounge 2007

welcome cocktail 1

The first mix will start with the birth of cinema building a bridge to contemporary cinema within minutes. You will dive into the festival circuit and under the water. We will celebrate american sillyness, and say what we want, No to family values. And last but not least we will listen to the breathing and squeaking of reduced food packages. Just to name a bit.

Der erste Mix beginnt da wo das Kino das Licht der Welt erblickte, schlägt innerhalb von wenigen Minuten die Brücke ins 21 Jahrhundert, lobhudelt amerikanische Dusseligkeit, taucht ein in Licht- und Festivalwelten, sagt was er will, sagt nein zu "family values" und verschafft dem Quieken des Instant Futters eine Plattform. Um nur einiges zu nennen.

welcome cocktail 2

The second part explores the sensual relation of a girl and a squid, enters the Brazilian night, listen to the wind and, in the end, realizes that some girls are beasts.

Im zweiten Teil erfahren wir mehr über die sinnlichen Beziehungen einer jungen Frau zu einem Oktopus, verlieren uns in der brasilianischen Nacht, lauschen dem Wind und müssen erkennen, dass manche Mädchen Bestien sind.

welcome cocktail 3

The third part of our journey through the pictures let the music play, follows mans best friend, questions truth, experiences the law of love, seeks new friendships and realizes the cosmic order: "Boy meets Girl" "Girl leaves Boy" "Boy meets DVD"..
As you know, three things enhances every movie: Cyborgs, Zombies, Ninjas

Im dritten Teil unserer Reise durch die Bilder spielen wir zum Tanze auf, folgen unserem treuesten Freund, fragen nach Wahrheit, erfahren die Macht der Liebe, suchen neue Freunde und erkennen die ewige Abfolge: "Boy meets Girl" "Girl leaves Boy" "Boy meets DVD"..
Drei Dinge sind es die jeden Film verbessern: Ninjas, Cyborgs, Zombies.

• time capsules

2007-02-07T22:50:00.000-08:00

video loops one channel works and installations

Installations

Happy Famous Artists NL Western Philosophy 2005

Video installations, loops and one channel works are an essential part of Directors Lounge. Moving images that go beyond the boundries of the screen or the narrated timeline expand the program literally. Many of the works that will be displayed this year are in a way timeless as they deal with moments of experience, a taken moment, looped endless, stretched or accelerated in time, thus making them cocoons of an instant. Others question our general perception of reality or resolve childhood memories. To present a wide variety of works regardless of time and space do we toggle the works on display. Don´t hesitate to ask if you are looking for a specific piece.

• some of the works to be shown

•Lorenzo Oggiano IT Quasi-Objects / Cinematic n.07 2005

still from Quasi-Objects / Cinematic n.07 by Lorenzo Oggiano

In this Sense Quasi-Objects regards actualization of data, production of biologically a-functional occurrences (bio-politically dysfunctional), dealing about Life, but without reference to the outcomes it is used to recognize; possibilities that can be viewed as transient outputs of an operative practice: aesthetics of process.
more

• Happy Famous Artists NL Western Philosophy 2005

If we had a world of our own, everything would be nonsense.
Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrariwise, what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would.
You see? Happy Famous Artists

Happy Famous Artists are a collective combining ideas of Intelligensius Anarchus and Jeff Blind.
Our work is multimedial and conceptual with main areas of inspiration being the sciences, philosophy and psychology, political and social phenomena on one side, and classical as well as contemporary art and popular culture on the other. Our key interest lies in the research of how these perceived authorities shape and influence general perception of reality.

• Frans Van Lent NL Staan 2002

The work of Frans van Lent (Rotterdam 1955) is characterised by simplicity of form and subject matter. The starting point is the artist's body and its locomotion in relationship to the landscape.

For the recording of STAAN he stood for a long time in an empty landscape with his back to the camera. He used ten consecutive minutes without any further editing to form a loop. The immobility of the artist forms a contrast to the continuously changing weather.

• Vadim Schaeffler DE Motion 2006

• Magda Bielesz PL swimming Lesson 2004

"I'm fascinated with states which I can not (perhaps as yet) experience. I can’t swim. I fell down in the water when I was the child, so the only way for me to swim is to paint this, and I also made a swimming lesson video. The video is about this feeling: the only way to go to the sea for me is to go like a Jesus over the sea, because I’m afraid of the water. Thanks to this video my dreams come true."

more

Nice Bombs • Usama Alshaibi • Mo mon 12 02

2007-02-07T22:40:00.000-08:00

• 20 h • 8 pm Nice Bombs by Usama Alshaibi

MY JOURNEY BACK TO IRAQ

Nice Bombs shows filmmaker Usama Alshaibi as he returns to Baghdad to reunite with his family after nearly 24 years. This documentary navigates through his unique relationship to an Iraq that is much different than the country of his childhood.
Usama captures the conflicting reactions to the conditions of life in Baghdad.
Through a wide range of opinions and experiences he provides a broad panorama of voices long neglected under Saddam’s regime.
His cousin Tareef enters the room upon hearing an explosion. “It’s a bomb. A Nice Bomb,” he explains. The phrase is indicative of his family’s nonchalance about their situation. As one young boy put it, “We’re Iraqis. It’s normal.” With humor and resilience Nice Bombs explores Usama’s dual role as both Iraqi and American.

• Usama Alshaibi US/IQ Nice Bombs 92 min, DV, 2006

"...humanizes the situation on the ground..."
-Johnathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader, Critic’s Choice

" ...a surprisingly warm first-person video diary...edited with grace and tact.”
-Michael Philips, Chicago Tribune

“Among the many Iraq docs I've seen over the last few years, Usama Alshaibi's
‘Nice Bombs’ offers a refreshing new perspective... Westerners will likely
sympathize with Alshaibi and his family in a much deeper way.Because,
after all, he is one of us, too.”
-Anthony Kaufman, IndieWIRE

"It pulls off the rare feat of being 'important' without forcing a political agenda
down the audience’s throat.”
-Time Out Chicago

The sound of a ground-shaking explosion awoke my wife and I from a deep sleep. It was about 7:00 in the morning. My cousin Tareef entered the bedroom
to find a tie for work. “What was that?” I asked. “It was a bomb. A nice bomb.”
The phrase was indicative of my family’s nonchalance about their situation. I had
been away for twenty-four years. They were used to it. As one young boy put it,
“We’re Iraqis. It’s normal.”
My Arabic is weak so I spoke to my relatives in English, both on and off camera. I
was surprised that, despite the language barrier, their meaning clearly broke through. I thought that most Iraqis would be reluctant to speak openly. It had been rumored that Saddam executed people for simply making jokes about him and they were accustomed to holding their tongues. The opposite was true.
Everyone wanted to speak, and they wanted Americans to hear them.
I left in 1980 in the midst of a war between Iraq and Iran. I was eleven years old and terrified of dying. The current war gave me an opportunity to return and revisit my birthplace and my family, and to explore a culture in which I feel both rooted and uprooted. I was frightened, but I felt that I had to go and see what TV and newspapers could not convey. I brought my camera along to document the experience.

• Usama Alshaibi US/IQ Nice Bombs 92 min, DV, 2006

Winner Best Documentary at The Chicago Underground Festival 2006

Director – Usama Alshaibi
Producers – Kristie Alshaibi, Ben Berkowitz, Ben Redgrave
Executive Producers – William Haddad, Justin Moyer, Studs Terkel
Cinematography – Usama Alshaibi, Kristie Alshaibi
Editors – Amy Cargill, Michael Palmerio, Usama Alshaibi
Music – Naeif Rafeh, Issa Boulos, Omar al-Musfi, Crumpler, Strepsata, Andy Ortmann,
G(riot)
Sound Mix – Jacob Ross, Experimental Sound Studio
Color Correction – Bob Sliga

Usama Alshaibi at placeboKatz here and here

In Focus: Academia Internacional de Cinema • Do thurs 15 02

2007-02-07T22:29:00.000-08:00

• 18 h 30h • 6:30 pm In Focus curated by Ram Devineni

Academia Internacional de Cinema, Sao Paulo, Brazil

T he Academia Internacional de Cinema (International Academy of Film) is an innovative educational institution that uses key elements from the best film schools around the world to create a highly specialized and creative program.
AIC Films is a co-production of Academia Internacional de Cinema and Rattapallax, Inc. to showcase some of the best films produced at this fresh school.
Curated by Ram Devineni from Rattapallax.

Sete Grilos/Dois Cachorros (7 Crickets/2 Dogs) is an uncanny vision of a young man's insomnia through an interminable night based on a popular Brazilian poem. Screened at the 2006 Zebra Film Festival in Berlin and the Potenza International Film Festival in Italy.

Curitibatuquetown, reminiscent in style to Koyaanisqatsi, looks at Curitiba, Brazil from day to night. Brilliant photography, music, and editing.

4:48 am: A common man wakes up every day at the same time, and always does the same things. The film captures the rigorous routines of the mind.

screening date will be announced soon

In Focus: Wolf Kahlen • Sa sat 10.2.

2007-02-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

• 20 h • 8 pmIn Focus curated by Gallery KMZA

Wolf Kahlen

Einer der ersten Videokunstponiere Deutschlands im Portrait

A closer look into the work of one of the earliest video art pioneers

Wolf Kahlen (left) in talk with Longest F. Stein of gallery KMZA during Directors Lounge 2006

In Wolf Kahlen´s NetWorks images or sounds, words of the classical poets in world languages or the European anthem dissolve by the clicking interactivity of the user. And return cyclecally in a second part of the piece, pixel by pixel, the same way they disappeared.
Life and death of images and sound compositions: The triptych of the reknowned piece (of the year 2000) called SELBST-LOS/Self-less (shown to the left), or WOLKEN-LOS and the recent GEDANKEN-LOS, and others like EUROPA ON THE FLY or VERZEIHUNG HERR VON GOETHE, SORRY MISTER JOYCE ...
In analogy then the single found and unchanged stones and ‘young rocks’ (a title of an 1969 video sculpture of Kahlen using a floating stone) , no more than atomic or pixeled parts of their environment, but joined together to groups of two or three, they may be looking like letters or archaic sculptures. May take over associations of any kind, though they are born out of chance and play, like the NetWorks.
Which are as site specific as the stone works, since they happen only at the site of the user at instant and never repeat, though they can be printed out, signed and numbered, as globally distributed parts of a piece, which knowbody owns, but many thousands so far have only details of.
The momentary associations, their potential of temporaily changes, this is the connection between the stones and the pixels.Peter P. Kajzar

Ich weiss nicht, wie man alle anspricht. Ich persönlich kann nur jemanden ansprechen.
I d not know how to address any-body. I can communicate with some-body only.
Es gibt keine Wirklichkeit. Es gibt nur Wirklichkeiten.
There is no one reality. I only know realities.
Nichts ist direkt erfahrbar, alles ist ver-mitte-lt, also objektiv falsch, persönlich wohl richtig.
No perception is pure of ..., anyone is media-ted, objectively wrong, personnaly maybe right.
Medien vermitteln.
Media mediate.
Im besten Falle zwischen der Situation und mir.
If I am lucky between matter and me.
Zwischen Materie und Immaterie.
Between material and the immaterial.
Ohne geistige Energien materialisiert sich garnichts.
Without spirit-ual energies no-thing matters.

(Wolf Kahlen 1980)

• Ich kann sagen was ich will 5 min, 1975

• Selbstversuch II (Körperrasur) 1 min 45s,

• Trespassing 5 min,

• Selbstversuch IV (Bräunung) 5 min 45s

• I can’t get hold of her 5 min, 1975

• Lindentunnel 7 min 36, 1991

• Some proofs/Some more proofs of water refraining from shaping

12 min 43s, 1991/2002

• Art Flood 4 min 22s

• Schnelles grau 6 min 49s, 1990

• Wolken die Berge Versetzen 36 min 36, 1990/1999

more at placeboKatz

Wolf Kahlen Museum

LiveBox Chicago

2007-02-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

• 22 h •10 pmLiveBox Chicago curated by Catherine Foster

Catherine Forster of LiveBox, Chicago presents a wide selection from a playful look at contemporary narratives to sharp and witty shorts and gorgeous non-narrative musings. Some of them based on childhood nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

part 1: "Didn’t Cha Know"

• David Lachman US Home Made 4 min 50s, DV, 2004

• Rachelle Viader Knowles CA In My Mind I am in NY 9 min 45s, DV, 2005

• David Lachman US Flower to Flower 6 min 50s, DV, 2004

part 2: "Knots and Crosses"

• Irina Botea RO/US Aktion 1 min, DV, 2003

• Kazuhiko Kobayashi JPGate Vision 5min 24s, DV, 2005

• Thom van der Doef US Cup 4 min, DV, 2006

part 3: "Sparkling Diamonds"

• Lee Arnold GB/US Alpinia 1 min 36s, DV, 2006

• Galina Schevchenko RU/US Flower Immersion 7min 35s, DV, 2006

• Patricia Shrigley GB Pilchard 4 min, DV, 2006

part 4: "Brothers Grimm"

• Jill Johnston-Price US PrickleE Britches 6 min, DV, 2006

• Catherine Forster US Humpty Dumpty 7min 35s, DV, 2006

part 5: "Experimental Melodies"

• Carol Kim /US Chasing Pools 8 min 35s, DV, 2005

• Tony Gammidge GB A Short Song About Thread 4min 06s, DV, 2005

• Kim Collmer US/D Lichtwelten 4 min 30s, DV, 2006

Catherine Forster will be present

Vienna Boys • Cosima Reif Live • Mo mon 12 02

2007-02-07T21:50:00.000-08:00

• 22 h • 10 pmDiavortrag A Remake Experiment By Cosima Reif

Junge Wiener Vienna Boys
(in Viennese)

the face of pure chance: The enchanting Cosima Reif

Cosima Reif, bewitching mistress of fortuity, Viennese in furs and a regular on Directors Lounge from the very first time, honours the third Directors Lounge with a slide show and lecture examing prepotenz (such a charming Viennese term) as well as ingenuity of the young Viennese. Anyone luckily enough to see her last year´s presentation of the lost Cuban Film by Eisenstein will agree that this date is a must. Rumour has it that she lately prefers to give her lectures dressed only with a fur and nothing else, thus making her appearance even more viennese.

13 1/2 years after Falco's JUNGE ROEMER (Young Romans) it is about time to flatter the young Viennese....
13 1/2 Jahre nach Falco's JUNGE ROEMER ist es an der Zeit, auch mal junge Wiener zu loben....

Cosima Reif during Directors Lounge 2005

13 1/2 years after Falco's JUNGE ROEMER (Young Romans) it is about time to flatter the young Viennese. Prepotenz (such a charming Viennese term) as well as ingenuity, that may sparkle in the eyes of the young Viennese lads, is suspected by the elderly and therefor hidden. Thus making it necessary to construe the subliminal signs of the Vienna boys. That´s what it´s all about.

13 1/2 Jahre nach Falco's JUNGE ROEMER ist es an der Zeit, auch mal junge Wiener zu loben. Natuerlich auch zu tadeln. Sowohl Praepotenz (welch schoenes wienierisches Wort) als auch Genialitaet, die jungen Wienern aus den Augen blitzen koennte, wird natuerlich von den alten Wienern beargwoehnt, deshalb besser versteckt. Man muss also die Zeichen, die junge Wiener aussenden, zu interpretieren wissen.
Das ist, worum es geht.

LUST step one • Frei fri 16 02

2007-02-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

• 22 h • 10 pm live video a guided screening by Torben Simonsen

LUST

LUST – step one, a sketch of a neverrealized video-installation.

Torben Simonsen, creator of LUST Step One will guide us through an interactive labyrinth, where the spectator in each viewing will experience something unique.

These two characters
they have this thing going on
they cannot let go of one another
he cannot let go of her
and she tells him
we cannot be lovers
we can be friends
and he says, allright then honey
lets make a movie
she says, okay babe
what should that movie be about
that movie should be about you and me
beeing lovers in the movie
oh thats a great idea she says
and so the story begins
and so they go off
out into LUST

Those are the words of the first video you encounter in LUST step one. In 2002 “he”, Torben Simonsen, goes to America to make an erotic roadmovie.

On returning to Copenhagen Torben Simonsen spends the following three years editing the recordings in his working studios situated on the outskirts of the derelict dock yards of Copenhagen. During the editing process Torben Simonsen changes his focus from the story of Herman & Sylvia to the way the story is perceived. In this
intense study of the nature of experience he experiments with different artistic genres and explores hybrids of the pictorial arts, installation and film making.

Torben Simonsen chooses the sketch as the project’s final form because he wants to focus on the ambiguous meanings of the material and because he wants to force the spectator to dwell on it’s many possibilities and uncertainties. Thus, LUST – step one, does not appear as a completed work, but as a vision of one.

China Doc • curated by Marina Foxley

2007-02-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

• Special China Doc curated by Marina Foxley

Independent Chinese Documentaries

This special focus comprises of several long features and shorts videos and illustrates the singularity and the richness of the independent Chinese documentary in a concise manner.
Chinese independent documentary is noticeably flourishing and with the self-development of alternative structures and platforms in Mainland China, it surely presents a potential to expand. The rise of new technologies and the use of the DV format have created a closer connection with the real and favoured the spreading of the documentary genre. Exploration of the urban environment and the city activity, observation of the daily life, people living at the fringes of mainstream society, the common people, the individual, the personal and subjective are some of the topics that can be found in those films and generally in independent productions from China today.

This special programme was made by the collaboration of Marina Foxley and Zhu Rikun (Fanhall Studio).

Marina Foxley will be present at all screenings

• China Doc part 01 fri 09.02. 10 pm
• China Doc part 02 sun 11.02. 8 pm
• China Doc part 03 mon 12.02. 6:30 pm
• China Doc part 04 tues 13.02. 8 pm

In cooperation with Zhu Rikun and Fanhall Studio, Bejing

Urban Research on Film

2007-02-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

Urban Research on Film is an ongoing film and video screening project selected by Klaus W. Eisenlohr for Directors Lounge in Berlin. Urban Research presents artists and filmmakers who address the progress of urbanity and who are concerned with urban space and public space in their work.

The increased dynamic of urban development - either as Shrinking Cities or exploding Megacities - urges for new concepts and a rethinking of urban space. Contemporary architectural and social impacts on urban developments and public space have become a theme for many artists. The collection of short films comprises documentary, experimental and intermediate forms.

Urban space is under rapid change. The city has long played a predominant role in the work of artists, the city as image, as ideal, as Moloch, as source of joy and social destruction, and not least as icon of Modernity. With the increased dynamic of city development however - either as Shrinking Cities or exploding Megacities - more and more artists take up the issue of urban development and adopt urban space and public space as their theme.

• Sari Carel FI One Eye Open 4 min 30s, DV, 2006

Urban Research on Film will present unique, refreshing, challenging and entertaining works addressing the contemporary live and the development of the urban landscape. Further screenings and an online presentation are planned.

• Karola Schlegelmilch DE Blunmenthal 7 min 30s, DV, 2006

• Urban research program A fri 09.02. 8pm
• Urban research program B sun 11.02. 6:30 pm
• Urban research program C fri 16.02. 6:30 pm
• Urban research program D sat 17.02. 6:30 pm

• how to find us

2007-01-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

Karl Marx Allee 133 map public transport open from 6 pm

.Our venue, the formerly Cafe Kosmos.