contemporary art ruhr, the innovative art fair, 26 – 28 october 2018
Directors Lounge presents genre-straddling slices of cinematic art and cuts of media experimentation at the c.a.r. video lounge with Angela Christlieb and Maria Niro’s “IN AN ALIEN LAND”, Céline Trouillets “SONG” series and experimental works from the Medienwerkstatt Berlin and Leo Kuelbs Collection.
contemporary art ruhr, World Cultural Heritage Site Zollverein, Gelsenkirchener Str. 209, 45309 Essen
Opening Reception:
Friday, October 26, 8 pm, V.I.P.-Preview, 6 pm
Céline Trouillet's “SONG” series
Growing up in the 1980s, Céline Trouillet was part of the first generation to be constantly exposed to music video clips in a period that also saw the advent of Karaoke in Europe, which encouraged the notion that anybody could become a pop star, an idea that also led to public interest in amateur TV talent contests. Each portrait contains multiple layers of signification that are open to interpretation. The films are formally similar, yet each portrait is unique and the creative possibilities are only limited by the number of songs in existence and the number of individuals willing to sing them.READ MORE
Leo Kuelbs Collection: Light Year 31: Identity 0.0
Curation & concept by Leo Kuelbs with Aaron Riedel.
Featuring new work from: Radka Salcmannova + Alex Hamadey, Sarah Mock + Daniela Imhoff, Thomas D. Rotenberg + Theologian, Sarah Trouche, Naormi Meijia Wang, Mai T. Segura & Harald V. Uccello + Alex Hamadey, Kinga Toth + Normal Gergely, Vadim Schäffler, and Richard Jochum + Xiren Wang.
Identity 0.0 is a collaborative video and sound program exploring the changing meanings of “self” and “individuality.” Digital reality has allowed for enhanced communication, thus the possibility of easier integration, between individuals from cultures near and far. What was foreign is now only a keystroke away. Gender can be manipulated through science and philosophy, just as intentions for good or ill can be disguised easily through a variety of avatars and aliases. Nationalism and religious identities strain to remain powerful and effective versus the strong tides of this evolution of the self. All heading towards a further integration of humans (the terrestrial) and artificial intelligence, aka “The Singularity.” READ MORE
IN AN ALIEN LAND by Angela Christlieb and Maria Niro
The film is a collaboration between filmmaker and artist Angela Christlieb based in Vienna and who also stars in the film, and the New York artist, filmmaker, cinematographer Maria Niro. The concept came about during Christlieb’s visit in New York in the fall of 2016, during the presidential elections in the USA.
Artist Booth:
Phhotography, paintings and installations by Carola Göllner, Julia Murakami, VISUMAN, André Werner
contemporary art ruhr, the innovative art fair 2018
World Cultural Heritage Site Zollverein XII, Gelsenkirchener Str. 209, 45309 Essen building A5, A6, A8, A9, A12
Opening hours:
Friday, October 26, 8 pm, V.I.P.-Preview, 6 pm
Public fair hours:
Saturday, October 27, 12 am – 8 pm
Sunday, October, 28, 11 am – 7 pm
CONTEMPORARY ART RUHR, MEDIA ART FAIR, 26 – 28 OCTOBER 2018
Directors Lounge presents
Leo Kuelbs Collection: Light Year 31: Identity 0.0
Identity 0.0 is a collaborative video and sound program exploring the changing meanings of “self” and “individuality.” Digital reality has allowed for enhanced communication, thus the possibility of easier integration, between individuals from cultures near and far. What was foreign is now only a keystroke away. Gender can be manipulated through science and philosophy, just as intentions for good or ill can be disguised easily through a variety of avatars and aliases. Nationalism and religious identities strain to remain powerful and effective versus the strong tides of this evolution of the self. All heading towards a further integration of humans (the terrestrial) and artificial intelligence, aka “The Singularity.”
Through this increasingly singular appendage, we continually manipulate our identities towards various audiences, as well as encapsulate our ever-changing notions of reality and our place within it. We “block”, we “add”, we “friend”, we “share”, we “filter,” all generating rapid snapshots of some form of our evolution. If one identity doesn’t fit, we are free to tear it down and build a new construct. And we can do it infinitely.
These individual patterns reveal how we wrestle with, and attempt to balance, our desires to be anonymous while simultaneously asserting some form of ourselves - our pasts, our views, our ideas of our future selves. Also, the differences and similarities between identity portrayal patterns of individuals reveal commonalities on multiple demographic levels.
Our own personal series of re-inventions is ironically what pushes us to demand privacy control against a seemingly limitless world of access into our digital histories. We crave unlimited exposure and reach, but want to have the ability to leave no trail to our past selves; so that we may never be interpreted in any other way than as we have deigned in the seemingly infinite moments.
Creators are asked to look back as they look into the future through the lens of the present and explore once important communal identities versus this shift into a more individualistic and digital reality; and how these shifts and their resulting patterns may manifest themselves in the creation and behavior of integrated societies of the foreseeable future.
Curation & concept by Leo Kuelbs with Aaron Riedel.
Featuring new work from: Radka Salcmannova + Alex Hamadey, Sarah Mock + Daniela Imhoff, Thomas D. Rotenberg + Theologian, Sarah Trouche, Naormi Meijia Wang, Mai T. Segura & Harald V. Uccello + Alex Hamadey, Kinga Toth + Normal Gergely, Vadim Schäffler, and Richard Jochum + Xiren Wang.
CONTEMPORARY ART RUHR, MEDIA ART FAIR, 26 – 28 OCTOBER 2018
Directors Lounge presents
Céline Trouillets "SONG" series
Céline Trouillet was born in 1975 in Colmar, France. She graduated from the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg where she now lives. She regularly presents films in international exhibitions and festivals and has received a number of grants from the French Ministry of Culture. Her films have been awarded prizes at the Octobre Rouge Festival in Luxembourg, the Videomedeja Festival in Serbia, the Ozon Festival in Poland and the AVIFF Cannes Art Film Festival in France. The "SONG" series of "singing portraits" involves a continuous close-up of singing heads facing the camera and performing in real time. Growing up in the 1980s, Céline was part of the first generation to be constantly exposed to music video clips in a period that also saw the advent of Karaoke in Europe, which encouraged the notion that anybody could become a pop star, an idea that also led to public interest in amateur TV talent contests. Each portrait contains multiple layers of signification that are open to interpretation. The films are formally similar, yet each portrait is unique and the creative possibilities are only limited by the number of songs in existence and the number of individuals willing to sing them.
SONG N°27 - 4'50 - 2018 (HD 16/9)
Voice: Amini Skhiri
Music: "Un autre monde" ("An Other World") by Telephone
Amina is a Belgian psychologist and former contestant on the TV talent show The Voice. She affirms her right to freedom of expression both in religious and artistic terms, which she does not regard as mutually exclusive.
SONG N°26 - 3'25 - 2018 (HD 16/9)
Voice: Cathy Beaumont
Music: "La vie en rose" ("Life in Pink") by Edith Piaf
She was a friend of the late French singer Barbara who gave her the earrings she is wearing in the film. She also regularly performs covers of songs by Edith Piaf, another singer whose work reflects the bitter-sweet struggle of existence.
SONG N°25 - 3'05 - 2017 (HD 16/9)
Voice: Elena GuerinMusic: "Negua joan da ta" by Zea Mays
A Basque girl sings a love song that serves as a link to Dora Maar, the singer’s makeup representing the tears in Weeping Woman, Picasso's 1937 portrait of his mistress and muse who was behind the creation of Guernica, depicting the bombing of the Basque capital (the anniversary of which is this year). Weeping Woman was derived from a figure in Guernica. Picasso consistently portrayed Maar weeping because, for him, women were "suffering machines".
SONG N°24 - 4' - 2015 (HD 16/9)
A young man performs "Wild World" by Cat Stevens. The pictorial aspect suggested by the backdrop evoking nature in terms of fauna and flora, combined with the classical references hinted at by the floral crown worn by the singer, associated with pagan gods, conjure up the savage and Dionysian side of the world. This is echoed by the title of the song and reminds us that the destiny of human beings lies beyond their control, at the mercy of external forces.
CONTEMPORARY ART RUHR, MEDIA ART FAIR, 1 – 3 JUNE 2018
“Transit “by Medienwerkstatt im Kulturwerk des bbk berlin
The program shows recent films from Medienwerkstatt dealing with the subject of identity. In times of transition the works reflect topics from changing housing environments to new governmental regulations of surveillance as the new Chinese point system on so called „good“ behaviour. Thoughts still seem to be free up in the sky where birds take on beautiful abstract formations.
Works by Gabrielle Mainguy, Lucy Powell, Silke Gänger, Bettina Rave, Elena Gavirisch, Sandra Becker, Stephanie Hanna, Thorbjørn Christiansen, Lioba von den Driesch and Nicola Rubinstein
TRANSIT will be screened at the contemporary art ruhr video lounge presented by Directors Lounge.
Lucy Powell "Hill Climbing With Random Restarts"
2 synchronisierte Videos (moving in) und (moving out) von jeweils 2 Stunden und 40 Minuten. Ausschnitt aus „moving in“ 7 min, 2017
Silke Gänger, K77, 9:04 min 1997/2017
Bettina Rave, Painting, 5:30, 2017
Elena Gavirisch, The Mirror, 2 Kanal Video 6:47 min, 2011/2017
