CINEMATIC
Apollo Theater
03.09.2010

The Kunstverein Bremerhaven invites you to an art project in the old Apollo Theater cinema. Under the title cinematic, three international artists will be presented who work in the field of tension between art and film. With a new visual language and personal questions, they continue a development that began in the 1960s. At that time, television was becoming increasingly important and video technology was becoming affordable. Initially, artists explored the possibilities and limits of the medium. They analyzed formal aspects such as the format of the television image, the stretching or gathering of temporality, or the manipulability of recorded reality. At the same time, land art and performance artists in particular discovered video as a medium of documentation.
In the ensuing debate, video artists engaged with traditional cinema. In addition to feature films as source material for art, individual aspects such as the narrative structure of films, their atmosphere or documentary strategies are also addressed.
This is also the field of experimentation of the works shown at cinematic by Cyprien Gaillard, Clemens von Wedemeyer and Michael John Whelan.

In his videos, Cyprien Gaillard (born 1980 in Paris) documents the relationship between man, nature and architecture. By using fixed camera angles, he reduces the cinematic moment in his works in favor of a seemingly objective viewer’s point of view. This effect is contrasted by the use of spherical music and narrative action, such as in the three-part work Desniansky Raion. Cyprien Gaillard’s works span the arc from the beginnings of video art with its connection to land art to theatrical staging.

Clemens von Wedemeyer (born 1974 in Göttingen) focuses on the production conditions of film. In Occupation, the camera films a group of extras who are instructed to line up in a square. While the extras believe it is a rehearsal, the camera is already recording. The attempt becomes the content of the film, rehearsed action and documentary quality overlap. This theme is both doubled and questioned by The making of Occupation.

Michael John Whelan (born 1977 in Dublin) distinguishes between two techniques in his works. The videos are characterized by a strong documentary character, which is enforced by means of static camera angles and a lack of cuts. The films, on the other hand, are based on a predetermined plot that is performed by actors. Cuts and different locations emphasize the narrative character. What both groups of works have in common, however, is the precise capture of atmosphere.

In addition to the filmic works, the artist Laas Abendroth will draw attention to the cinema project. Born in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1967, the artist complements the project with a linguistic work that refers to both the special architectural features of the Apollo Theater and its location in Geestemünde. A text panel above the entrance to the cinema used to announce the current films, now it ironically transfers the project into the urban space.

Special thanks to DSE Die Schnäppchenecke for the friendly cooperation.

With the kind support of

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