Projects 2005

Imaginary is potential

Entrance free

Monday 10 January 2005
6-8 PM

MUU ry
Nervanderinkatu 10
Helsinki, Finland
www.muu.fi

Lecture/screening by curator Henrikke Nielsen (Berlin/Copenhagen) about the potential of creative imaginary in film and video



IMAGINARY IS POTENTIAL II

Henrikke Nielsen, January 2005


Matthew Burbidge / Rufus Kraus (GB/D) Ulrike Feser/Wolfgang Stahr,/Silvan Linden (D) Michael Graessner/Amelie von Wulffen (D) Marie Jager (F/US) Deborah Ligorio (I) David Maljkovic (HR) Jacob Melchi (US) Arthur Ou (US) Jenny Perlin (US) Corinna Schnitt (D)

"L'imagination au pouvoir" (all power to imagination), was one of the most frequent graffiti-slogans during the revolution of May 1968. The pieces presented in this screening would probably have agreed. In opposition to the documentary and realism seen in a lot of video-works of the last decade, they are all strikingly staged, engaging animation, special-effects and an overall affection for the narrative and fictional. This does not equal aping Hollywood big budget movies or MTV aesthetics, however. On the contrary, they are characterised by home-made effects, the use of ”retro-technology” and a return to early filmmaking.

Ever since the historical avant-garde, art has been aiming at blurring the boundaries between art and reality, and film and video turned out to be the perfect media for this purpose. The pieces presented here are, rather than rendering the real, insisting on a distance to it. The urge to make the unbelievable believable has of course been a distinct feature of classical cinema, getting more and more persuasive by using still more advanced technology. But the two Science Fiction pieces presented (Jager and Maljkovic) are making use of very simple methods: a car is wrapped in tinfoil, and (non)-actors are moving mechanically in order to mime robots, and we immediately identify them as futuristic scenarios anyhow. As for the pieces that have been filmed on 16 mm (Perlin, Jager and Ou), they make use of early cinema camera techniques and -editing, and two other pieces (Burbidge/Krauss and von Wulffen/Graessner) have been realised with a high 8 camera. Also the animations included (Ligorio, Melchi and Perlin) are either rather abstract or primitively made, which counts for the computer-animations as well as the stop-motion pieces (Feser/Stahr/Linden and von Wulffen/Graessner).

Individually, the pieces touch upon very different themes and subjects, but they are all reacting upon reality by making use of the imaginary as a tool in their search for solutions, alternatives and new ways of expression.

Imaginary is Potential/List of works

- Matthew Burbidge/Rufus Kraus, Installation 01-07, 2001, High 8 transferred to DVD, 15’48
- Ulrike Feser/Silvan Linden/Wolfgang Stahr, Hollywood oder die weiche Fall des Pragmatismus, 2002, DVD, 1’98
- Marie Jager, R.U.R, 2003, 16 mm transferred to DVD, 13’15
- Deborah Ligorio, Landscape, 2000, DVD, 4’58
- David Maljkovic, Scene for a new heritage, 2004, DVD, 4’
- Jacob Melchi, Stories for Projection, 2003, DVD, 2’
- Arthur Ou, Wish I was there.....not here, 2001, 16 mm transferred to DVD, 5’20
- Jenny Perlin, The United States in a Chaotic World, 2003, 16 mm transferred to DVD, 2’30
- Corinne Schnitt, Schönen, guten Tag, 1995, 16 mm transferred to DVD, 5’
- Amelie von Wulffen/Michael Graessner, Pedigree, 1999, High 8 transferred to DVD, 5’



Thanks to: MUU, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, Galerie Crone Andreas Osarek, Berlin, Galerie Olaf Stüber, Berlin and Galerie Kamm, Berlin


Henrikke Nielsen were in residency at NIFCA, through NIFCA’s Research Residency program for critics, curators and journalists, during January - February 2005
e-mail: henrikkenielsen ( ) hotmail.com

For more information, please, contact Henrikke Nielsen directly or NIFCA, Mitro Kaurinkoski, residencies ( ) nifca.org, tel. (+358 9) 686 43 105