The insuperable spirit of George Méliès hovers over this programme, with its impossible voyages, eccentric human endeavour, authorial transparency, tricksterism and concurrent conceptual and aesthetic vigour; in other words, fun. In Titan, Klaus Lutz’s adorably artisanal space odyssey, the filmmaker doubles as an intrepid astronaut simultaneously creating and voyaging through space with various props. By animating his collages and drawings, Lutz creates enchanting expeditions that transcend both gravity and dimensionality. There is no fixity on planet Lutz!
The latest instalment in Heinz Emigholz’s internationally lauded Photography and Beyond series is Two Projects by Frederick Kiesler, which completes the director’s trio of works on innovative Viennese architects. Unlike the films on Rudolph Schindler and Adolf Loos, Two Projects emerges in diptych form and includes a model for an astonishing project never built, the Endless House (1959). Juxtaposing Kiesler’s maquette for this bewildering structure with the Shrine of the Book (1959–65), built with Armand Bartos in Jerusalem to house the Dead Sea Scrolls, the film renders homage to a visionary whose wild and wonderful genius was little understood during his lifetime.
T. Marie’s 010101 is a sophisticated, shimmering digital painting, three years in the making. That it is one minute, one second and one frame in length indicates its complexity. Its diaphanous palette finds resonance with the crepuscular hues in American avant-garde master Ernie Gehr’s stunning Waterfront Follies, a work of extended landscape sublime continually interrupted by the flow of human interaction. A view of the Brooklyn harbour places us with the filmmaker, before a scene of natural splendour – one that unremittingly belongs to an urban environment where activity and encounters spontaneously transpire, adding multi-layered dimension to the seemingly placid setting. The film’s structure and soundtrack are replete with surprise, reminding us of life’s impulsiveness, its beauty, and how the two intersect. Likewise, an enigmatic human poetry in motion spills forth from Hotel Roccalba, where Josef Dabernig’s family is inexplicably gathered. Gestures of leisure conspire to operatic heights, like a sonata of inactivity. The programme’s roving portrait continues its movement toward Puccini Conservato by Michael Snow, to whom Wavelengths is dedicated. Commissioned by the Lucca Film Festival for the 150th anniversary of the famous Italian composer’s birth, this delightful video provides witty visual and sonic commentary to Puccini’s La Bohème.
Andréa Picard
Klaus Lutz is a Swiss-born artist and filmmaker known for his 16mm films in which moving images are projected onto a large balloon.
Heinz Emigholz is a Berlin-based filmmaker, visual artist and cinematographer. His films include the series Schenec-Tady (72–75) andThe Basis of Make-Up (74–04), and the films Schindler’s Houses (07), Loos Ornamental (08) and Two Projects by Frederick Kiesler (09).
T. Marie is an interdisciplinary artist whose work includes Optra Field III-VI (07-08).
Ernie Gehr was born in Milwaukee and now lives in Brooklyn. His films include Reverberation (69), Serene Velocity (70), Still (71), Signal – Germany on the Air (85), Side/Walk/Shuttle (91) and Waterfront Follies (08).
Josef Dabernig is a multi-disciplinary artist who has twice exhibited in the Venice Biennale. His films include Wisla (96), Jogging (00), Rosa Coeli (03), Lancia Thema (05) and Hotel Roccalba (08).
Michael Snow is a highly acclaimed Canadian filmmaker, musician and visual artist. His films include Wavelength (67), Back and Forth(69), La Région centrale (71), So Is This (82), SSHTOORRTY (05) and Puccini Conservato (08).