For the second time, Hochkantfilmfest transformed the city of Bremen into a venue for international, curated video art.
19 works on the theme of desire, selected by relevant curators from the art and film scene, transformed shopping malls and train station halls into fugitive museums. The digital video & display panels were cultural conceptual surfaces and artistic canvases for positions by:
Clara Alisch/ Ronald Anzenberger/ Nadine Arbeiter/ Miriam Bornewasser/ Brit Bunkley/ Mighty Joe Castro/ Judith Dürolf/ Lenia Friedrich/ Dominik Geis/ Barbara Haiduck + Friedrich Dörffler/ KNOWN AS STUDIO/ Beate C. Koehler/ Jana May/ Camila Mejía/ Astrid Menzel/ Lisa Reutelsterz/ Amon Ritz/ Anja Schnaars/ I-Chieh Tsai
Ronald Anzenberger, "Like a bird", 2019, Spain
Instead of living with animals in natural harmony, we keep them in special containers designed by us, adapted to our own preferences, needs and desires. This project strives for an alternative way of dealing with animals in the form of a romantic symbol between captivity and freedom. In the process, a small yellow canary is kept in a birdcage made of ice. The installation in public space took place on June 1, 2019 in the Caldera de Taburiente National Park on the Canary Island of La Palma (Spain) and was documented by video.
Nadine Arbeiter, Brust oder Keule (Two is Better than One), 2023, Germany
Longing for symbiosis is the longing moment in "Brust oder Keule (Two is Better than One)". The human being as a figure is the focus of my artistic work. I create images with strong contours that revolve around real people, fictional figures and media self-portrayals.
Miriam Bornewasser, Warten auf den Aufzug, 2023, Germany
„Waiting for the Elevator" deals with interstices as places of dreaming. The gaze remains fixed on a door. Movement exists only in lights that move across the walls and identify the door as an elevator. What will happen when the elevator stops? Will it open and where will it take the viewer? The door depicted is part of a model of the room. In the camera's view, the dimensions cancel each other out. Viewers are enabled to enter another world through the 8 x 5 cm of a painted door.
Mighty Joe Castro, Never Let the Wound Heal, 2021, USA
I have been working as a paper collage artist for close to 20 years. Three years ago, I started experimenting with creating static collages that incorporate moving images. The idea is to cut up portions of video with the same technique that I would use making analog paper collages. The movement in the collages are subtle and work to create a feeling of an incomplete moment, like dream or a distant memory. I explore many themes, including dualism, injustice, modern life, the discarded past, devolution and the trappings of a society that’s becoming less and less humanistic, a culture obsessed with new technology and driven to consume at all costs - whatever’s on the mental menu that night, honestly. I take a great deal of inspiration from vintage movie posters–I like the idea of expressing an entire story through one collection of images.
Lisa Reutelsterz, Separated Together, 2020, Germany
Separated Together is a short animation from the first Corona Lockdown by video and media artist Lisa Reutelsterz. It is one of six experimental animations (Lockdown Automations) from observations and reflections of her environment in sudden change. Months of uncertainty, abandonment, being alone. About dreaming of being allowed to touch close people again, relatives, friends. Without the fear of hurting or losing them. As long as we take care of each other, we are one.
Lenia Friedrich, Frogs at Midnight, 2020, Germany
Just like the virus and the normality to which we want to return, the frogs cannot really be grasped and held. They escape from our hands again and again.
KNOWN AS STUDIO, Fluid Desire, 2023, Germany
Our project "Fluid Desire" describes a feeling between love and lust. It is a kind of amorphous longing for a person or relationship - an intensity that can be both natural and fleeting. Fluid desire involves no judgments or expectations, but a deep appreciation for the moment shared with others. It allows us to find beauty in the present and reminds us of the mystery and potential that comes with life.
Judith Dürolf, Blick aus dem Fenster auf den Comer See, 2023, Germany
A blurred state between reality, imagination, fantasy and desire. A feeling that is located somewhere between the present and the future, between existence and not-yet-existence. The sequence interweaves associations that I had previously written in a book. Between the pages of the book lay carbon papers, which I repeatedly shifted and turned during the writing process. Depending on the pressure with the pen and the position, the words appeared inverted by the removal of the ink, sometimes clearly, sometimes fleetingly, on the "blue papers". I continuously photographed the changing typefaces and then merged them.
Jana May, The Flower, 2023, Austria
Reflection, introspection and femininity are central themes of my works. They open surreal insights into the depths of the subconscious. What captivates me are the contrasts of life - the interplay between strength and vulnerability, escape and rest, vitality and mortality. Often seeming so incongruous in life, they find unity in creation. With "The Flower", a moving image collage of some of my ink works, I wanted to invite to a melancholic-positive journey of longing, to illustrate that from every emotion may also take something beautiful.
I-Chieh Tsai, I think of you, 2023, Germany
Every time I feel frustrated, I think of you. I think of the frustration you brought me. Every time I am not accepted, I think of you. I think of you distancing yourself from me. I keep thinking of you.
Dominik Geis, Teardrop, 2023, Germany
I am interested in the interpersonal moments of reference and the culturally influenced and socially charged variety of images of gestures, facial expressions, physicality that are interwoven in them. Through a rhythmic editing of found-footage videos and the music and sounds, some of which are specially produced, dramaturgical-choreographic video collages and space-consuming video installations are created. The visual material is dissected, directing the viewer's attention and, for example, using loops and time manipulations to open up further, previously unexplored pictorial spaces and levels of meaning. What interests me are the "gaps" evoked in my contentual examination of a wide variety of themes, subliminal con- and dissonances, as well as ambivalences, which on the one hand are treated and negotiated through the medium of video itself, and on the other hand through the sociological and cultural observations that have become images, as visually complex webs of references.
Lactoland, Clara Alisch, 2021, Germany
Reproductive work, which is often done by women* in the domestic sphere, remains invisible in the capitalist system with its equation of work and wages. The historical division between the private space as a place of reproduction and the public space as a place of production leads to an isolation of the reproductively active. Lactoland shows a protagonist - the dairy worker - looking longingly out of the window into the sun. Many people still perceive the sight of breastfeeding in public as an imposition. Clara Alisch wants to challenge the (in)habits of seeing in order to counteract the marginalization of care work.
Camila Mejía, Let’s Dance!, 2022, Germany
Camila Mejía ist eine in Bremen lebende multidisziplinäre Künstlerin, deren künstlerische Arbeiten lichtbasierte Installationen und Film umfassen. Sie hat kürzlich ihren Bachelor of Arts an der Hochschule für Künste Bremen abgeschlossen. In ihren Filmen konzentriert sie sich auf die Zustände der Veränderung, die mit Licht, Bewegung oder Farbe erzeugt werden können. Sie entwickelt analoge Settings, wie z.B. Lichtreflexionen auf verschiedenen bewegten Materialien, zu digitalen Animationen. Der große Reiz ihrer Arbeit liegt in der Übertragung von analogen Bewegungs- oder Transformationsmustern in die digitale Bildgebung. Ihre Experimente basieren auf Farben, Texturen, Lichtern und Bewegungsänderungen, die auf einer Reihe von selbst auferlegten Parametern, Intuition und ihrer Beziehung zum Material aufbauen. Bei ihren Recherchen konzentrierte sie sich auf abstrakte Animation. In ihren Kurzfilmen reflektiert sie über das Potenzial der Animation im Kontext der bildenden Kunst. Sie lässt sich von vielen Künstlern inspirieren, die Objekte, Oberflächen und verschiedene Arten von Räumen als Leinwand für die Projektion ihrer Kunstwerke nutzen, und von den unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten, die die erweiterte Animation bietet. Sie wählt Licht und Projektion als Medium, um ihre Arbeit zu präsentieren. Der Brückenschlag zwischen analog und digital ist etwas, das sie inspiriert und ihr erlaubt, weiterhin mit greifbaren Materialien zu arbeiten, diese aber gleichzeitig neu zu gestalten und digital zu transformieren. Ihr Ziel ist es, Wege zu finden, diese beiden Bereiche immer wieder miteinander zu verknüpfen.
Brit Bunkley, The Peacable Kingdom, 2023, New Zealand
"The Peaceable Kingdom" ist eine Traumlandschaft mit verschiedenen Haus- und Wildtieren, die menschliche Architekturen bewohnen. Der Titel stammt aus einer Serie von Gemälden des Quäkerpastors und Malers Edward Hicks. Er malte 62 Versionen des friedlichen Königreichs der friedlichen Koexistenz zwischen Raubtieren und Beute ("ein eschatologischer Zustand, der aus Texten wie dem Buch Jesaja, dem Buch Hosea und der Bergpredigt abgeleitet wird"). Die Künstlerin Andrea Gardner und ich haben auf der Grundlage des (von ihr gewählten) Titels zwei Skulpturinstallationen geschaffen.
Beate C. Koehler, WATER DIALOGUE, 2023, Germany
I work and collage with self-made image, film and sound material. In multi-layered photographic and cinematic works I let my counterpart and my environment come alive. The focus is on the examination of identity and the preoccupation with the relationship between man and environment/habitat. In the project FREQUENCIES I deal since the beginning of 2022 with the element water as the origin of our life and the basis of our existence. On the one hand I create portraits of various bodies of water such as the lakes of Bremen, the Main, the North Pacific and the Arctic (THE RHYTHM OF WATER), on the other hand I deal with the interrelationship of man and water (WATER DIALOGUES).
Barbara Haiduck + Friedrich Dörffler, L' âge d’or, 2023, Germany
Who does not wish that the clock runs in the opposite direction! Wars and catastrophes are reversed, mistakes in the big and small are correctable, and one becomes even younger again in the end. Standing on an external point of view - perhaps on planet B - one looks at the earth. The Earthrise photo from 1968 of the Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders is quoted, who exclaimed fascinated "Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!". However, our Earth is now out of shape: Exploited, at the end of its resources, not much is left of the old world. But fortunately, time runs backwards, the Earth is a disc, and when we're done with it, we'll move onto a new one. Right?
Astrid Menzel, KORPPOO, 2023, Finland
"In the cold Arctic regions, a light mist created by the exhalations of their bodies hovers over the migrating herds of reindeer. Each herd has a lead animal that they all follow." Source: Bunter Kinder Kosmos - Tiere in Eis und Schnee, Frank'sche Verlagshandlung, W. Keller & Co., Stuttgart / 1969 "In the cold Arctic regions, a light mist hovers over the migrating herds of reindeer, created by the exhalations of their bodies. Each herd has a lead animal that they all follow." Source: Bunter Kinder Kosmos - Tiere in Eis und Schnee, Frank'sche Verlagshandlung, W. Keller & Co., Stuttgart / 1969
Anja Schnaars, n sehn rast, 2023, Germany
Love, home, an ideal world - the idea of things for which people yearn is always shaped by clichéd images and narratives that move within the framework of prevailing conditions. Dime novels are exemplary for this, and at the same time are delightfully blunt. My edgewise film dissects a cover of such a dime novel and takes what it provides as material from which something new emerges, which presents the clichés, breaks them, exposes them to laughter, and which strives to broaden the horizon of realities a little.
Amon Ritz, YNOS, 2022, Germany
YNOS is a multi-part visual project that uses shadows to explore processes of computer-assisted image creation. Transparent polyethylene terephthalate shapes light, refracts it, and acts as a chaotic lens. Focal lines are created, one of the most difficult phenomena to calculate in modern image synthesis.
Hochkantfilmfest thanks:
All applicants (beyond the festival program, again countless, really good works were submitted).
The great jury consisting of: Ilona Rieke, Dr'in Anne Thurmann- Jajes, Donghee Nam and Stef van Bellingen.
Jasmine Shah, Kristina Miller, Jolanta Butenaite, Dörte Möx, Judith Dürolf, buten un binnen, Bremen zwei, the Künstlerhaus Bremen, the Filmfest Bremen Team, the Walle Center, the Senator for Culture Bremen and the Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation.
Festival Management:
Karin Demuth
Contact:
hochkantfilmfest@gmail.com
In cooperation with:
Funded by:
