Friday, 24 February 2012

Reynolds' time


"The building's dazzling public lobby, surrounded by several tiers, was once the center of social life in East Berlin with thousands of sparkling lamps filling the open space of the lobby's grand staircase. Many Berliners recall attending a play in one of the theaters or dancing the night away in the underground disco, others seeing their first rock concert, or being married. Later, thousands of citizens demonstrated against the planned demolition and hoped the building would be protected against historical censorship, but alas, one day, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the Palace completely disappeared." (Artstudio Reynolds, 2011a) 
Reynold Reynolds' film Letzter Tag der Republik / Last Day of the Republic (2010) captures the destruction of the Palast, opened in 1976 as "an emblem of the future" of East Germany [Reynold-reynolds.com, 2012a]. Reynolds has also produced Stadtplan (2004),  "a personal and hypnotic, split-screen and time-lapsed trip through Berlin," using the divide between the images to signify Germany's divide (Artstudio Reynolds, 2011b).


The Secrets Trilogy, composed of Secret Life (2008), Secret Machine (2009) and Six Easy Pieces (2010) (HKW, 2011), questions time and space. For the final production of Six Easy Pieces, Reynolds moved his entire studio into the Haus der Kulturen der Welt producing the film live before the audience, combining filming with performance [Node Berlin, 2012].




Artstudio Reynolds (2011a) Letzter Tag der Republik/ Last Day of the RepublicGermany (2010) [Online]
 http://vimeo.com/26032322 [17/02/2012]
Artstudio Reynolds (2011b) Stadtplan. [Online]
 http://vimeo.com/16743958 [19/02/2012]
HKW (2011) Labor Berlin 4: Reynold Reynolds: The Secrets Trilogy. [Online]
 http://www.hkw.de/en/programm/2011/labor_berlin_2011/veranstaltungen_53773/Veranstaltungsdetail_53537.php [17/02/2012]
Node Berlin [2012] Labor No. 4, Reynold Reynolds. [Online]
 http://nodeberlin.com/archive/labor-no.-4--reynold-reynolds [17/02/2012]

Reynold-reynolds.com [2012a] Letzter Tag der Republik (Last Day of the Republic) [Online]
 http://www.reynold-reynolds.com/pages/documentary.htm [17/02/2012]
Reynold-reynolds.com [2012] Secret Life. [Online]
 http://www.reynold-reynolds.com/pages/secret_life.htm [19/02/2012]
Reynold-reynolds.com [2012] Secret Machine. [Online]
 http://www.reynold-reynolds.com/pages/secret_machine.htm [19/02/2012]
Reynold-reynolds.com [2012] Six Easy Pieces. [Online]
 http://www.reynold-reynolds.com/pages/six-easy-pieces.htm [19/02/2012]
transmediale.de [2012] [Online] http://www.transmediale.de/content/letzter-tag-der-republik [17/02/2012]