Spatialised Practices Critical Evaluation

"Physical experience makes a much deeper impression than a purely intellectual encounter. I can explain to you what it's like to feel cold, but I can also have you feel the cold yourself through my art. My goal is to sensitize people to highly complex questions." (Eliasson, 2008)

The artist Olafur Eliasson’s comment highlight not only how the artist communicates with his audience, but also his aims about his work.  Eliasson is based in Berlin, and created The Weather Project at Tate Modern  in 2003. He also acknowledges that "there is no fixed interpretation of my works” and that his audience are free to interpret his work in their own way (Eliasson, 2008). The following is a magazine interview on the Weather Project.

SPIEGEL: Do you now know what fascinated so many people about your sun? Was it beauty?

Eliasson: Would that be so bad? I like beauty, but perhaps it means something completely different to me than to you. That's the point.

The Wall model at a gallery in Stuttgart

My intention behind creating Meanwhile was to explore diverse individual perceptions and behavior. Perceptions and values are influenced by the social environment in which people are surrounded by, and my aim was to portray conflicting emotions of Berliners regarding the construction of the Berlin Wall. I have created fictional individuals in East and West Berlin, and through their experiences expressed the conflicting opinions, often seen in the city after twenty years of reunification.

The story was based on historical fact, construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 by the government of East Germany in an attempt to stop the mass emigration of its citizens the West. By creating the division of a city through the eyes of two individuals – a grandfather with poor health who awaits his grandson’s visit, and in the other part of the city, a teenager who fears her friends will not attend her birthday party due to their family fleeing across the border – I explored ways of highlighting how individuals with different backgrounds could experience the same event from contrasting angles.

One of the challenges I faced was to establish where Meanwhile would be best placed, and to recognise who my audience was. This was a task I have not taken on before, as my professional practices in journalism and education had fairly well-identified group of clients or audiences, and galleries and cinemas were not settings I considered my work to be in the past. My research was not only on what artists produced, but how and why their work became the piece that they are. There are numerous artists who have chosen to incorporate the Berlin Wall, or the division of Germany, into their practice. In exploring new field of my work with motion and still images, I have gained an insight of my target audience alongside identifying what field Meanwhile exists. The ideal setting I consider now is at a venue where its audience/clients have prior knowledge of modern history of Germany, thus specific venues such an auditorium in the German Embassy or the Goethe-Institut lecture hall will most likely meet the above criteria. However, the nature of the work with subtle audio feature and a clear non-open ending narrative, it is desired to be place in a facility where the audience are not distracted by noise, light or any other social variables.

"The Wall was ‘over there’ and didn’t seem to affect my day-to-day life. I was separated from that problem by an ocean, a language, my life station, imaginary country boundaries, and history. I had many walls between me and the Berlin Wall." (Tillman, 1990, p.11)

Tillman, the photographer and author of The Writings on the Wall: Peace at the Berlin Wall, notes that the Wall “communicated a message” which made him engage with what he originally thought as irrelevant to his life. His book offers “the reader the uncanny feeling of actually being in Berlin as the historic event [the opening of the Wall] unrolled” (Ferguson, in Tillman, 1990, p.9) through the graffiti he photographed.

Keith Haring at Checkpoint Charlie, online, and

Jonathan Borovsky's Zeitgeist in West Berlin (1982)
in an exhibition catalogue

Artist relate to the Wall in their own unique ways, as audience do to their artworks. Koolhaas (1993) argues the wall “was not imposed on the city as constant formula” (p.220) and that it “had generated its own sideshows/paraphernalia” (p.221) on each side. He notes that West Berliners and tourists being able to approach the Wall and the Eastern side a military frontline, and he further claims that “the wall suggested that architecture’s beauty was directly proportional to its horror” (p.226); contrary to Keith Haring who used the Wall as a canvas to create a 300 metre long painting to communicate “the absurdity of the city that had been cut in half” and divided [Pospiszyl, 2010]. Borofsky also used the Wall as part of his Zeitgeist installations, claiming: “no matter how personal I get about myself, my work is going to have meaning for somebody else. It has archetypal relevance” (Borofsky, in Rosenthal & Marshall, 1884, p.176)   

"Berlin of 1980s gave rise to Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire. In this film mobility is again a key theme, yet this time restricted to insubstantial Angels who use the impossible vantage points of film to penetrate the spaces of everyday people. Floating across the city they listen to the alienation and solitude of people in the city, hearing not only speech but thoughts. The weightless mobility of the angels forms a contrast to the segregated spaces of flats and homes, the rooted repetitive life of ordinary people, the isolation and emotional divisions this causes." (Crang, 1998, p.87)

Crang (1998) also makes a reference to communities of television audiences, which may share “common message through a program” breeding collective identities among otherwise strangers in which he calls a global many-to-many interactions” (p.97)

Through identifying artists’ work in galleries or cinemas, I have become aware of unique features about those settings, and in relation it has broadened my practice. Photography has been my practice and through the process of my research and production, I have decided to incorporate sound and moving image. Artist Lærke Lauta’s video works, as well as Chris Marker’s La jetée, have provided ideas on how still and motion images could be combined, or to be differentiated; Amie Siegel’s work on how to project different perceptions and time; and Paul Cotter’s The Berlin Wall, in portraying diverse perceptions and behavior through objects and fictional settings.

Eva Meyer-Keller prepares to kill:
at a Death is Certain venue in Norwich

I have also interviewed the artist Eva Meyer-Keller, who as well as performing internationally, curates various events. She notes that it was difficult to relate to her audience – from theatre professionals to tourists – at the former East German parliament Palast der Republik, as she was blowing balloons for her performance. She has also stated that she is aware of cultural differences in various countries she had performed, and that her Death is Certain performance has been altered slightly over time. Other artists include a Berlin based model and actor Susanne Braun, who said her role is “a puppet with a lot of Make-Up” and “very changeable” in order to suit her roles and the setting scenes. 

Eliasson (2008) states “I am interested in reaching as many people as possible, and I know I will have to perform a balancing act… it will be an event” and the risk of his work being perceived as a tourist attraction. He also assesses that “this world of art and of museums can also be unbelievably elitist” even though the laws of economy still apply to artists as they do not “live in a space apart from politics and the market, and in many cases they even have very good strategies to market themselves. It would be hypocritical to claim otherwise”. 

"Every project is a risk. The things that count can't be tested first. You can simulate everything on a computer, but things are different in real life, and you can't predict how audiences will react. In other words, I am someone who in fact submits to chance." (Eliasson, 2008)

"Approaching a film, or a film scene, like a text or musical score, as performance. To approach a cultural output— images from a national film studio—as an index of time & place. Re-making cinematic spaces, shot architectures and angles, the movements of extras. Remaking but leaving things out. The shot pulls focus through emptiness. So the performance becomes a performance of the camera, a performance of estrangement. A performance of absence. A haunting, a doubling, a replica. The historical event that usually goes unseen suddenly so close at hand. A conjunction of virtuality & presence, correspondence & contradiction. A feeling of unease." [Siegel, 2010]

References
Crang, M. (1998) Cultural Geography. London: Routledge.
Eliasson, O. (2008) (trans. Sultan, C.) 'Museums Are Too Elitist'. [Online]
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,549819,00.html [02/05/2010]
Koolhaas, R. (1993) “Field Trip: (A) A Memoir” in Sigler, J. (ed.) (1995) S, M, L, XL. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, pp.212-233.
Pospiszyl, T. [2010] Keith Haring and Czech Art. [Online] http://www.haring.com/cgi-bin/essays.cgi?essay_id=30 [24/06/2010]
Rosenthal, M. & Marshall, R. (1984) Jonathan Borofsky. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art; & New York: the Whiteney Museum of American Art.
Siegel, A. [2010] Berlin Remake. [Online] http://amiesiegel.net/project/berlin_remake [09/05/2010]
Tillman, T. (1990) The Writings on the Wall: Peace at the Berlin Wall. Santa Monica, CA.: 22/7 Publsihing Company.

unused images

A timetable at a bus stop, to portray travel and departure. The image involved too much text and was too specific. Image below is also to visualise emigration. I created an army checkpoint, borrowing uniform, helmet, a gun and a shield (on top of the Landrover), and a spinning orange light. It took about an hour to get things right, including the light, and I am satisfied with th image too... but it didn't fit in with the other images.

This is a recently abandoned house, with a teddy bear, DVD cases and TV remote (somewhere in the photo). I like the light too, but there was another shot with a tiger and it seemed repetitive. Railway track is a direct link to travel, but I thought being able to walk on the tracks would indicate the line hasn't been in use for a while. The station below also looked uncared for.

This is a dog cage, and with its door open, I wanted to show that it had either fled, or was let loose by the owner. I used too many open doors, I think. I found these plates in a house I was shooting in. Well, technically, I'd walked passed them and the model for the old man told me they were from Berlin.

Balloons and cookies, a reference to Sophie Calle's Room 47. These balloons weren't "limp" as in Calle's work, and I wasn't sure what setting these would be in. I thought of shooting a balloon flying out of a kid's hand later, but never had the time for it. The cookies simply looked too much like a dog shit.

And these look like cardboard, and too plain to be cookies.

I like it. I might use it in the future. The lock on a gate and barbed wire (below) were too obvious, and the house (bottom) didn't feel empty enough.

British Museum, Guggenheim and Online Community

"Anyone with access to a video camera and a computer will have an opportunity to catch the eye of a Guggenheim curator and vie for a place in a video-art exhibition in October at all of the foundation’s museums: the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York, the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice." (Vogel, 2010)

Whilst Guggenheim collaborates with the video sharing website, the British Museum looked towards the web-based collaboratively edited Wikipedia "to help ensure that the museum's expertise and notable artifacts are reflected in that digital reference’s pages", with Wikipedians in residence (Cohen, 2010). "I looked at how many Rosetta Stone page views there were at Wikipedia... that is perhaps our iconic object, and five times as many people go to the Wikipedia article as to ours" claimed the  Matthew Cock, who maintains the museum’s website. He also noted, "people are gravitating to fewer and fewer sites. We have to shift with how we deal with the Web" (Cohen, 2010).

Cohen, N. (2010) Venerable British Museum Enlists in the Wikipedia Revolution. [Online]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/arts/design/05wiki.html?ref=design [06/06/2010]

Vogel, C. (2010) Guggenheim and YouTube Seek Budding Video Artists. [Online] 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/arts/design/14video.html?ref=arts [14/06/2010]
Lucas, G. (2010) Johnny Kelly for YouTube Play. [Online]
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/june/johnny-kelly-for-youtube-play [21/06/2010]

Innaccessible Display of Posters

This passageway at Notting Hill tube station, with advertisement posters from late 1950s, has not been publicly accessed since it was cut off and replaced by another. It was officially photographed by London Underground, remaining "wholly inaccessible" and posters left "intact" (Ashworth, 2010).

Ashworth, M. (2010) Disused passageway with vintage 1959 posters, Notting Hill Gate tube station, London, 2010. [Online]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/4669837848/in/set-72157624079183751/
[21/06/2010]

Tacita Dean on Boots

"Berlin Project was the most personal work I had ever done up t that point. I think the reason why I am getting a bit more autobiographical, ant The Uncles is totally autobiographical, is because I've moved to Berlin and suddenly it has given me permission to make work about England, because prior to that I would travel the world for my subject matter. It is something that I hadn't noticed - the autobiography in Boots, 2003, is subliminal when you encounter the work, but when you read my texts yo then see the connection and Boots's association to my family. Berlin Project includes Boots - I interviewed him about his father's life in Berlin - basically Boots had this legacy of being the son of a minor traitor. He was born in London but lived in Munich and Berlin as a boy during the whole Nazi period." (Dean, in Walsh, 2007, pp.568-569)

Maria Walsh I saw Boots in Paris at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris. How is it set up at RIBA?  

Tacita Dean The RIBA room that we have has three doors so it absolutely invites Boots. Also the building is so much like Casa de Serralves, that same period. It is from the thirties and a bit fascist in a way, so it is a perfectvenue. I wanted to show it here at Firth Street as it is the principal work I've made in the last year but needed more space." (Dean, in Walsh, 2007, p.570)

Maria Walsh Why are there three versions of Boots?

Tacita Dean I wanted to use Boots's perfect ated urbanity, that in some ways he carried in his body that period of western culture when many were polyglot and somehow Europe was less divided in a strage sense even though now we have the European Community. Then, people would freely move between cultures and be multilingual." (Dean, in Walsh, 2007, p.571)

Tacita Dean "I wanted to film him in all these different languages without knowing I was going to do three versions... What I imposed on it was obviously the language seperation but also that he would take a different walk around the villa for each version. So in the English version he goes into the study, in the French, the dining room, in the German, the library and then they all go upstairs to the pink bathroom... what i love is that he changes with the language, which is so beautiful. In the German version, he is a bit fascist in a way, isn't he? Whereas the French version is much more romantic, the English is very wistful." (Dean, in Walsh, 2007, p.571)

Maria Walsh Boots's cahracter doesn't take over the building in the way that a character usually dominates place in mainstream fictional narratives.

Tacita Dean They both have parallel stories. An empty house of tha beauty is poignant anyway and Boots becomes an empty house also to some extent." (Dean, in Walsh, 2007, p.571)

Tacita Dean "People's perception of sound is extraordinary. It is so muted by image...

I put in everything. I always record sound live and collect sound while I am in the location, so most of it is recorded in situ but was just placed differently. It is another ingredient that adds to the visual because of course image in 16mm is recorded mute. And that for me is one of the primal seperations between video, digital media and film - the muteness of film, of cinema, and that everything has to be added." (Dean, in Walsh, 2007, p.571)

Walsh, M. (2004) "Tacita Dean" in Bickers, P. & Wilson, A. (eds.) (2007) Talking Art: Interviews with Artists since 1976. London: Art Monthly and Ridinghouse. pp.567-573.

Richard Serra on Installations

"I was talking to one of the engineers yesterday. To make sure that everything is done properly, they've overloaded the space with safety precaustions and I think they've used more hardware than they needed. It's okay with me, but I think that counts for the fact that when you go to watch the installations, you may think there's an assult being made on the Tate. After the big steel I-beam rails come out and the piece is set, I don't think the installation process is of concern nor do I think it's of any consequence.

To tell you the truth the nature of installations for me differ with each job or with each site. This isn't the first time that I've had to prop underneath. I did it in Berlin for the Berlin Block in 1978..." (Serra, in Bickers, 2007, p.386)

Bickers, P. (1992) "Richard Serra" in Bickers, P. & Wilson, A. (eds.) (2007) Talking Art: Interviews with Artists since 1976. London: Art Monthly and Ridinghouse. pp.386-392.

Irit Rogoff on Immigration

"...nationalism, one of the hallmarks of which is the perpetuation of the notion of belonging. If there are people who belong, there are those who do not. Nationalism and migration are connected around notinos of aspiration or protection.

"One of the things art allows us, that most academic discourses might not, is to start in the middle, and migration always starts in the middle. As a migrant, you're not of that place or this place; you're somewhere in-between."

"People who have been European for generations have a very structured formal language for their shared passions. People who have arrived from else where, and lived between several cultures, their shared passions are coming into being in different languages." (Rogoff, in Potts, no date)

Potts, R. (no date) "Terra Infirma: Towards a New Understanding of the Visual Culture of Geography" in Garageland, Issue 9, pp.40-41. 

Glasnost: Soviet Non-Conformist Art from the 1980s

Haunch of Venison

Another exhibition I went to was Glasnost: Soviet Non-Conformist Art from the 1980s, at Haunch of Venison (above). I was one of the first ones in that morning, and there were more space to walk and observe than at Tate Modern. I was able to talk to a staff at the door, who described the opening night's event where guests were ordered around by actors dressed as officers; and another staff at the gift shop who informed me of an artist who'd worked on the theme of Berlin Wall, and also posed for an idea I had (below). 

"3,000 pounds, excluding V.A.T."

I found the Anton Henning exhibition as exciting as the Glasnost one, with video installation and lowered lights. I realise exhibitions are not only venues that display art work, but offer experiences. This seems too obvious now, but it was a striking thought at the time.

Haunch of Venison [2010] Glasnost: Soviet Non-Conformist Art from the 1980s. [Online]

http://www.haunchofvenison.com/en/#page=london.current.glasnost [13/06/2010]

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera

This exhibition at Tate Modern focuses on images, mostly photographs, taken without "the explicit permission of the people depicted" [Tate Online, 2010a]. Sophie Calle's Room series, where the artist became a temporary cleaner of a hotel and photographed guests' belongings, were also on display.

  

The Hotel, Room 47

"Tuesday 24. 10:30 a.m. They are going to leave. The suitcases are packed. They are set in front of the door. They leave behind the balloon, which is hanging limp, and stale biscuits." (from Sophie Calle's Room 47)

This line leaves the viewer some sense of a departure and transition of the guests of Room 47, and is accompanied by photographs, including that of a wilted balloon.

I asked a staff if I can take photos at the exhibition - as I usually do - who then pointed at a sign with an image of camera crossed out. How can Tate charge visitors for tickets (£10/8.50 concs) for an exhibition based on images discreetly captured, and not allow visitors to take photos? Are they encouraging visitors to to take photographs by prohibiting it?

Room 47 at Tate Modern

Tate Online [2010a] Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera. [Online] 
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/exposure/default.shtm [12/06/2010]
Tate Online [2010b] The Hotel, Room 47:  1981. [Online]
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=26559&searchid=11571&tabview=text [12/06/2010]

Jonathan Borofsky

"For me, this hundred-foot tall aluminum sculpture composed of three figures meeting in the center, not only refers to the lightness inside our own solid bodies, but also the figures joining in the center, refer to the molecules of all human beings coming together to create our existence. This symbolism is especially poignant for this 100-foot Molecule Man on the Spree River in Berlin since the river marked the division between East and West Berlin." [Borofsky, 2010a]

In 1997, Jonathan Borofsky constructed the 30 meters tall Molecule Man, a permanent installation made of aluminium, on Spree River. His large sculptures, created by a team of multi-professionals, connect with wide range of audiences internationally; from boardrooms to public spaces, from tourists to politicians. Borofsky engages with audience through these installations, "reminding us that our shared commonality, our humanity, is the knowledge that we are here to achieve" and "his sculpture ensemble serves also as a respite—a place to go and reflect, separate from the teeming crowds and the din that surrounds and fills the site" [Klein, 2010].

The artist had also worked on the Berlin Wall in 1982, "Running Man at 2,541,898", which was carried out under cover of night, and was torn down with the Wall in 1990. 

"That 'Running Man' took me about two hours to make. I had a ladder so I could paint the image all the way up to the top of the wall. Three quarters of the way through the image, the patrol truck came. We all scattered and hid behind some rubble. We left our ladder leaning up against the wall. The British [patrol was] trying to figure out what the heck is this ladder doing here. They were about to take it away, and we came out from hiding. I said I was an artist working in an exhibition in this space next door called the Martin-Gropius Bau, an international exhibition space, doing this project on the outside. They said, 'Well, have you gotten permission to do this?' And I said, 'Not really. But I’m almost finished.' They gave in. 'Don’t tell anybody that we said you could do it.' I think the painting went down with the wall [in 1990]. Somebody sent me a chip from it." (Borofsky, in Curran, 2002)

Borofsky, J. [2010] Molecule Man. [Online]
http://www.borofsky.com/index.php?album=moleculemanberlin [11/06/2010]
Curran, A. (2002) Informatin about the Artist. [Online]
http://www.borofsky.com/pastwork/info.htm [11/06/2010]
Klein, M. [2010] Jonathan Borofsky On a Grand Scale. [Online]
http://www.borofsky.com/pastwork/info.htm [11/06/2010]

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City by Walter Ruttman

This silent film Berlin: Symphony of a Great City [Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt] was directed by Walter Ruttman, and released in 1927. While documenting a day of Berlin, Ruttman deploys aesthetic camera angles, actively creating his image of the metropolis (Crang, 1998). 

Crang, M. (1998) Cultural Geography. London: Routledge.

Internet Archive [2010] Berlin: Symphony of a Great City. [Online] 

http://www.archive.org/details/BerlinSymphonyofaGreatCity [11/06/2010]

Lærke Lauta: Motion, Still & Dual Channel

Lærke Lauta [Laerke Lauta] is a Danish artist who works with video installations as well as still images, and her works have been exhibited in various settings from galleries to internet. The following are some of her video works. 

Hun Mødte Sig Selv (2006)

Super 8 transferred to video, 1 channel, 12 sec loop

Hamsterbegravelse (2007)

DV-cam, 1 channel, 1 min loop

Both Hun Mødte Sig Selv and Hamsterbegravelse combine still and motion images into one. Lightsleeper places two channels of videos adjacent to each other.

Lightsleeper (2008)

HD, 2 channels, 6:30 min loop

Lauta, L. [2010] Video. [Online] http://www.lauta.dk/video.html [05/06/2010]
MCASD [2010] Lærke Lauta. [Online] http://www.mcasd.org/exhibitions/609/ [05/06/2010]

Museum Calls for Walls

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is looking for sites, building walls, in the downtown San Diego to be used by artists for its exhibition Viva la Revolución: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape [Obeygiant.com, 2010]. MCASD will organise "a multifaceted exhibition that explores the dialogue between artists and the urban landscape" at its galleries as well as urban sites, as it claims the majority of the world's population lives in urban areas for the first time in history and "the urban setting and its corresponding lifestyle are major sources of inspiration in contemporary culture" [MCASD, 2010].

"This is an historic revolution in visual culture, in which the codes and icons of the everyday—found on the streets in graffiti, signage, waste, tattoos, advertising, and graphic design—have been appropriated and used as an integral part of contemporary art-making. The urban landscape inspires and serves as both a platform for innovation and a vehicle for expression for many artists. The city itself, its buildings, vehicles, people, and advertisements, are not only the surface where the art is applied. The city fuels the practice." [MCASD, 2010]

Shepard Fairey, Street Mural Miami, 2008, stencil and mixed media collage

MCASD [2010] Viva la Revolucion: a Dialogue with the Urban Landscape. [Online]

http://www.mcasd.org/exhibitions/616/viva-la-revolucion [05/06/2010]

Obeygiant.com [2010] Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Calls for Walls. [Online]
http://obeygiant.com/headlines/museum-of-contemporary-art-san-diego-calls-for-walls [05/06/2010]

Soviet Union’s forbidden art unveiled

St Petersburg’s first private art museum opens, showing Soviet underground and Russian contemporary art

John Varoli
The Art Newspaper

A private Russian collector is due to open St Petersburg’s first private art museum on 4 June. Novy Museum, the brainchild of Aslan Chekhoev and his wife Irina, is devoted to Soviet underground and Russian contemporary art. The museum is centred on the Chekhoevs’ collection of nearly 300 paintings, works on paper and photographs assembled over the past five years.

The couple has spent E1m renovating three floors in a 19th-century building on the historic Vasilievsky Island, not far from St Petersburg State University and the Russian Academy of Fine Arts. The collection features works by 69 artists—including Yevgeny Rukhin, Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko, Komar and Melamid and Oscar Rabin—and the inaugural exhibition features a sample work by each artist.

When asked why he embarked on this project, Chekhoev said: “We see this as something for history and for St Petersburg, because around 70% of our collection is comprised of important Moscow artists whose works are not well represented in our local museums.”

Chekhoev will rotate the exhibition around three times a year, and he also wants to collaborate with other collectors. The Chekhoevs have been active buyers at major European and US auction houses, spending around E5m to build the collection. Their most notable purchase was Komar and Melamid’s Yalta Conference: the Judgment of Paris, 1985-86, which they purchased at MacDougall’s in London in November 2007 for £184,400. The three-metre-wide canvas depicts the conference that divided Europe during the second world war in the guise of Greek mythology. The painting shows Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin as Greek goddesses and Hitler as the shepherd-prince Paris.

“Russian art of the second half of the 20th century is truly unique, but it is not appreciated in Russia and abroad,” said Chekhoev. “Underground art arose in extreme situations of dictatorship; never mind the censorship and repression, it was simply difficult to get materials. While this slowed them down, it also forced them to be more creative and resourceful, and this spurred an incredible level of originality.”

Varoli, J. (2010) Soviet Union’s Forbidden Art Unveiled. [Online] http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Soviet-Union-s-forbidden-art-unveiled/20914 [04/06/2010]

East German Cinema

Heinz Leo Kretzenbacher
acmi

In the 40 years of its existence, from 1949 to 1990, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was widely perceived as "the other German state", the drab and dreary one, the poor relative. This perception was shared - if unacknowledged - by GDR officials whose constant self-praise of the "world class" of everything in the GDR just showed the size of the chip on their shoulders.

In hindsight, there were very few fields where the GDR could compete with West Germany, but one of these was the arts. Fine art, literature and film, in spite of having to deal with the censorship of a mistrustful bureaucracy, produced not only the mass of escapist kitsch and mandatory ideology that could be expected, but also many works of solid quality and a substantial number that reached international standing.

As a medium with mass appeal, the cinema played a special role in the art landscape of the GDR. Geography and politics gave it a running start: The Babelsberg studios of UFA, founded in 1917, former workplace of Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder and later the hub of cinematic propaganda in Nazi Germany, were situated in Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone that would become the GDR in 1949. It was at these studios in 1946, three years before the separate states were founded, that the first German feature film after World War II was shot (Wolfgang Staudte's The Murderers are Among Us). The UFA's successor, the GDR monopolist DEFA, went on to produce around 700 full-length features, around 750 animated films and more than 2000 shorts and documentaries before German reunification in 1990.

ACMI's Focus on East German Cinema gives a broad panorama spanning the time from Wolfgang Staudte's mentioned The Murderers are Amongs Us, shot in the stark landscape of post-war Berlin, to Helke Misselwitz's documentary After Winter Comes Spring (1988), which gave voice to the overwhelming atmosphere of stagnation and the hope for change in the dying years of the GDR. Between these extremes of the anti-fascist and humanist ambitions that marked the ideological and hopeful beginnings of the state that understood itself to be the "better" Germany, and the weariness and resignation of people living under a fossilized regime, the ACMI retrospective shows many different facets of GDR cinema. It is this diversity that makes the retrospective so attractive.

While many of the films in this program have found international acclaim, ACMI wisely refrains from showcasing only the most internationally successful films and also avoids the cringeworthy output of Stalin-era GDR propaganda. So while Solo Sunny (1980), Konrad Wolf's film about a young woman's struggle for autonomy in a rigid and boring society, represents the top level of GDR films, others of the same standing, such as Frank Beyer's Traces of Stones (1966), are not part of the retrospective, and neither are embarrassing communist hagiographies such as Kurt Maetzig's two films on Ernst Thälmann from 1954 and 1955.

A great variety of genres is represented in Focus on East German Cinema. While After Winter Comes Spring is the only example of the rich documentary tradition in the GDR, Frank Beyer's Naked Among Wolves (1963), set in the Buchenwald concentration camp, and Konrad Wolf's autobiographical I was 19 (1968), dealing with his return to Germany as a Red Army soldier in 1945, join The Murderers are Among Us as examples of anti-fascist films. And just as Wolf's Solo Sunny observes the struggle of a young woman to find her place in a rigid society in the year 1980, so does Herrmann Zschoche's Carla in 1965.

Kurt Maetzig's The Silent Star (1960) and Gottfried Kolditz's In the Dust of the Stars (1976) showcase the unique GDR take on science fiction. The former, adapted from a novel by Stanislav Lem, paints a bleak picture of a planet devastated by nuclear war - a prospect not entirely improbable at the height of the nuclear brinkmanship in the Cold War - while the latter is most remarkable for the ABBA-style clothing and hairstyles on show. Richard Groschopp's Chingachgook - The Great Snake (1967), based on James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Deerslayer, is representative of the GDR's considerable output of westerns, while Konrad Wolf's Sun Seekers (1958) deals with the Soviet uranium mining in Saxony after WWII - a chaotic period that has been described as the GDR's own "Wild West".

For the artists, producing films in a dictatorship often meant testing the limits of varying (and sometimes suddenly tightened) censorship. Sun Seekers appeared to question the leading role of the Communist Party and was not released until 1972, 14 years after it was made. Karla, along with almost all of the DEFA productions of 1965, fell victim to a sudden rollback in cultural policy after a short period of liberalization inspired by Khrushchev's Post-Stalin reforms in the USSR, and was not released until after the fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years later. Even in 1988, the documentary After Winter Comes Spring, enthusiastically received and awarded a prize at the Festival of Documentary Film at Leipzig that year, was not released for broadcast by GDR TV.

For audiences, watching films in the GDR often meant reading between the lines for things the censors might have overlooked. So while we might enjoy the involuntarily comical futurist costumes and sets of In the Dust of the Stars, a GDR audience would be aware of its ambiguous ending, which does not conform to the rules of socialist heroism. The fact that in I was 19 a young German woman seeks the protection of the protagonist out of fear of being raped by Soviet soldiers was a daring breach of a taboo subject. Even the teenage musical Hot Summer (1968) owed its phenomenal success not only to the leading couple, played by the most popular singers at the time, and the fiction of a spontaneous group holiday on the Baltic coast (unheard of in the strictly regulated and rationed system of distribution of holiday accommodation in the GDR). The film was also a welcome relief from the dark reality outside the cinema: in the summer of 1968, the armies of "socialist brother countries," including the GDR, crushed the short phase of liberalization in Czechoslovakia known as "Prague Spring."

Although some East Germans tend to compensate for their problems in getting along in the competitive world of unified Germany by looking back at the GDR through rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, there is not much this 'other' German state produced that will stand the test of time. However, most of the art produced in the 40 years of the GDR's existence will remain valid and valued; including it's rich legacy of film.

Heinz Leo Kretzenbacher was born in Graz, Austria, and grew up in Munich, where he completed his PhD in German, English and Portuguese Studies. He is currently a senior lecturer and convener of the German Studies Program at the University of Melbourne.

A list of East German films

Kretzenbacher, H.L. (2009) East German Cinema. [Online]
http://www.acmi.net.au/east_german_essay_english.htm [04/06/2010]

Acmi [2010] Focus on East German Cinema. [Online]
http://www.acmi.net.au/fo_east_german.aspx [04/06/2010]

candles

Amnesty International logo

"The symbol of the candle highlights perfectly the hope that Amnesty gives to so many people around the world by improving human rights." (Temperley, in Amnesty International UK, 2009)

Amnesty International adopted the candle logo which "continues to mobilise people of all religions, nationalities, cultures and customs to shine the light on the world's darkest corners", nearly 50 years after Diana Redhouse - a lifelong Amnesty member - designed an emblem based on a candle encircled in barbed wire. Peter Benenson, the organisation's founder, had the idea from a Chinese proverb, "Better to light a candle than curse the darkness" (Amnesty International UK, 2009).

Amnesty International (2008) Amnesty International Logo. [Online]

http://archive.amnesty.org/report2008/press-area/en/video-audio-photos.html

[04/06/2010]

Amnesty International UK (2009) Amnesty International and Alice Temperley launch limited-edition Amnesty scented candle. [Online] http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18480 [04/06/2010]

Rvf0elendil (2007) Schindler's List (theme). [Online] 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vEKNTsowd8 [04/06/2010]

Baron, Y. & Baron, D. (2007) Obituary: Diana Redhouse. [Online]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/dec/07/guardianobituaries.society [04/06/2010]

German Short Films in Shanghai

Cartoon and Animation (2009) Das Rad (“Rocks – English Subtitles) Academy Award Nominated Film by Chris Stenner, Arvid Uibel and Heidi Wittlinger. [Online] http://cartoonandanimation.com/165/das-rad-rocks-animated-short-film/ [04/06/2010]

Cibernautajoan (2009) Die Aussicht. [Online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCGIbjNe_N4 [04/06/2010]

Kontrastfilm (2009) Edgar Trailer. [Online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyiBur9UutM

interfilm Berlin Management GmbH [2010] interfilm Berlin Enriches the 2010 EXPO with German Short Films. [Online] http://www.interfilm.de/expo_2010_eng.php [04/06/2010]

Pine Tree Pictures (2007) Schwarzfahrer (with English Subtitles) [Online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFQXcv1k9OM [04/06/2010]

Shortstv (2009) Toyland - Interview with the director of the Oscar Nominated Short Film 2009. [Online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEtrrGwzQX8 [04/06/2010]

aniBOOM (2008) Our Wonderful Nature - 1st Place Animation: Jury Category Aniboom Awards 2008. [Online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aFKSvw4bjU [04/06/2010]

East German artist encourages painting against the grain

As an artist in East Germany, Hans-Hendrik Grimmling painted himself out of "socialist realism" in the GDR. He and five other artists were pioneers in organizing an uncensored exhibition: the First Leipzig Fall Salon.

Author: Nadine Wojcik

Editor: Kate Bowen
Deutsche Welle

Hans-Hendrik Grimmling was practically born with a paintbrush in his hand. By 14, he and a friend had already set up their own studio in Grimmling's hometown Zwenkau, near Leipzig.

The two boys did not just have art on their minds, though. Although they painted, copied works by artists including Franz Marc, and even sold a couple of pieces, the studio served more as a sanctuary of freedom. They used the space to drink and throw parties, and would rent the room to young couples in exchange for a glass of beer. Everyone else kept their distance.

"It felt great," recalled Grimmling. "At such a young age, we had already carved a niche and tried to free ourselves from convention."

The soldier with the painting kit

Grimmling, seen here in his studio, is now an art professor in Berlin

After finishing school, Hans-Hendrik Grimmling joined the National People's Army (NVA), as all young men in East Germany were required to do. He later described the experience as the most terrible time of his life, full of humiliation and hidden tears.

During his service, Grimmling's painting kit was one of the only personal items he was allowed to keep. He retreated to his room each night to paint and avoid the problems he faced in the military. "There, I painted just for myself as an escape and to feel a kind of tenderness. Painting saved me from the reality I faced and helped me survive," he said.

Upon completing his military service, Grimmling was accepted to East Germany's most renowned university for artists, in Leipzig. He and his classmates gained a reputation for being wild - but also unbelievably productive. 

"Completely strange imagination"

Grimmling finished his basic studies with Werner Tuebke, one of the most famous GDR painters, and was accepted along with five other students for the advanced class called "Free Art." It was led by Wolfgang Mattheuer, another important figure in the Leipzig art scene. Mattheuer's class provided Grimmling with an important forum where he could enjoy artistic freedom.

However, Grimmling was prevented from graduating just before the end of his studies. The faculty cited his "completely strange imagination" and the influence of "imperialistic decadence" in his work as reasons for his failure. There was nothing of the proletariat to be found in his paintings, they criticized.  

Faced with expulsion, Grimmling accepted an assignment to paint two miners in a piece called "Working Heroes." He explained that he had not yet developed a radically alternative perspective and still wanted the official recognition that a diploma confers.

"Working Heroes" led Grimmling to graduate with the grade of "very good" and he was offered a position at the Association of Visual Artists. The job provided for his basic needs and offered opportunities to take part in state-sponsored art projects and deals.

  "Umerziehung der Voegel" (Reeducation of the Birds),

 by Hans-Hendrik Grimmling, 1978

Catching the censors' attention

Alongside his official role, however, Grimmling was developing his own vision. He painted birds without wings or with contorted bodies turning in on themselves, while experimenting and testing boundaries with fellow artists.

His work began to draw attention from the East German censors. In particular, a line from a poem he and artist and friend Olaf Wegewitz posted above a gallery door raised concern. The line ran "The word ruins the way," and the censors wondered whether Grimmling meant to implicate the ruling SED party.

Government officials cancelled the gallery's planned exhibition one day before its opening date and ordered that it be taken down. The episode frustrated Wegewitz and Grimmling, who recalled, "We were humiliated, but, at the same time, we felt a sort of pleasure in being able to define ourselves differently and not belong to 'them.'"

Beyond the state's imagination

Another of Grimmling's exhibits was forbidden a year later, but the artist did not give up. He sought new ways to exhibit his work, and finally he had a stroke of genius.

Together with five other artists, Grimmling organized the "First Leipzig Fall Salon." The 1984 event became the first uncensored exhibition to take place in East Germany.

Due to their membership in the Association of Visual Artists, Grimmling and fellow painter Guenther Huniat were able to rent a space for the exhibit from a government agency in Leipzig. The state officials couldn't imagine that the artists were not planning to show official works from the Association, but their own independent creations.

Eventually, the Stasi - the East German secret police - caught wind of the group's plans and documented the work of Grimmling and his peers as hostile and negative. Security officials wondered, however, whether banning the exhibition would draw too much attention to the artists.

In light of these concerns, the exhibit was allowed to take place but with an important proviso: No more than six visitors could see the exhibition daily. Nevertheless, the show was a hit and attracted more than 10,000 visitors in the course of four weeks.

A threat to communism

Despite the exhibition's success, it proved to be a defeat for Grimmling. It became clear to him that the state would never permit a second installment of the Fall Salon. This conclusion led him to a significant decision: He filed an official request to be allowed to travel out of East Germany.

The Stasi file on Grimmling reveals that he was viewed as a lost cause who could not be won back for the good of society. As such, Grimmling's request to leave the country was processed and approved in an unusually quick manner.

In 1986, the artist traveled into West Berlin, together with his wife and young daughter. They lived with friends while Grimmling created a makeshift studio and began to paint with limited materials on packing paper from a hardware store. He was also able to sell a few paintings left over from his time in Leipzig.

 "Mauerbild" (Picture of the Wall),

by Hans-Hendrik Grimmling, 1983

Moving forward in Berlin

Gradually, Grimmling established himself more and more in West Berlin. He had begun offering painting courses by 1988. In 2001, he became a lecturer and later a professor at the Technical University for Art in Berlin.

He said of his work there, "Now and again, I try to explain to my students that it makes sense and can even bring a kind of joy to get mixed up in things that you think might be manipulated. And even after the fall of the Wall, there's still plenty of manipulation."

Grimmling, H.-H. [2010] Arbeiten: Auswahl. [Online]
http://www.h-h-grimmling.de/seite6.html [04/06/2010] 
Wojcik, N. & (Ed.) Bowen, K. (2009) East German Artist Encourages Painting against the Grain. [Online] http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4860853,00.html [04/06/2010]