Harun Farocki: Umgiessen
Variation on Opus 1 by Tomas Schmit
20 May – 21 November 2010
Opening:
Wednesday, 19 May 2010, 7.00 pm
Talks by Martin Goetzeler, CEO of OSRAM and Christian Schoen, Curator
www.osram.de/art
Hellabrunner Str. 1, 81543 München, Germany
U1 Candidplatz
The eighth installation on the SEVEN SCREENS was realized by the internationally renowned film maker Harun Farocki. The SEVEN SCREENS, existing since 2006, are a unique platform for digital art works in Munich’s public space. For his project Farocki created a site specific work that reacts to the ‘spectacle expectation’ that is often associated with LED screens as a medium.
Umgiessen (Re-pouring) refers to Tomas Schmit’s performance, ‘Zyklus für Wassereimer (oder Flaschen)’ (Cycle for Water Buckets [or Bottles]), which he performed on December 18, 1963 in Amsterdam. The Fluxus artist knelt on the floor in a circle of empty milk bottles and poured water from one bottle into the next until all the water had spilled or evaporated. “The action,” claimed Farocki, “evaded symbolism … it had no vital quality. It was akin to a Beckett play in the simplicity of its conclusiveness. Despite the uniformity of the event, there was a development; the anti-action found an end on its own initiative.”
Harun Farocki transformed the ritual action into a twenty-minute long, unedited film, translated for the spatial arrangement of the stele. Each stele is assigned to a bottle. Farocki let the pouring be done by a robot, whose arm wanders through the expanded pictorial space, executing the unspectacular act of re-pouring.
Born in 1944 in Novy Jicin (Czech Republic). 1966 – 1968 studies at the Deutschen Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (West). 1974 – 1984 author and editor of the magazine Filmkritik, Munich. 1998 – 1999 Speaking about Godard / Von Godard sprechen, New York / Berlin (a collaboration with Kaja Silverman); 1993 – 1999 visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1966 Farocki has made more than 100 productions for television and cinema, including children’s television programs, documentaries, essay films and narrative films; since 1996 the subject of many group and solo exhibitions in museums and galleries, most recently in 2009 at the Jeu de Paume, Paris and Museum Ludwig, Cologne; participation in 2007 in documenta 12. 2004 – 2006 visiting professor, since 2006 full professor at the Akademie für Bildende Künste, Vienna.
Direction: Harun Farocki
Image: Ingo Kratisch, Matthias Rajmann
Editing: Jan Ralske
Assistance: Anna Bartholdy
Production management: Matthias Rajmann
Artist talk and screening:
Tuesday, May 18, 2010, 7.00 pm
Harun Farocki and Dr. Matthias Muehling talking about the economy of images.
Following the screening of “Ein Bild” (1983).
Kunstbau der Städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhaus, U-Bahnhof Königsplatz, 80333 Munich.
In cooperation between the Lenbachhaus and OSRAM ART PROJECTS.
OSRAM ART PROJECTS
Hellabrunner Str. 1, 81543 München. U1 Candidplatz. www.osram.de/art
OSRAM ART PROJECTS: SEVEN SCREENS, MUNICH
In addition to the COLLECTION the OSRAM ART PROJECTS has included the SEVEN SCREENS since November 2006. With the help of state of the art LED technology this last addition realized the company’s desire to incorporate light and art. The director of the OSRAM ART PROJECTS is the art expert Christian Schoen, who is also a renowned curator of contemporary art and new media.
The following projects have been presented on the SEVEN SCREENS:
Mader/Stublić/Wiermann(Berlin): Reprojected – 2006 / Haubitz+Zoche (Munich): 2027 (after Fritz Lang’s film METROPOLIS) – 2007 / Diana Thater (Los Angeles): OFF WITH THEIR HEADS – 2007 / ART+COM (Berlin): Reactive Sparks – 2008 / Anouk de Clecq (Brussels): Motion for Newton – 2008 / Bjørn Melhus (Berlin): Screensavers – 2008 / Rúrí (Reykjavik): Aqua-Silence – 2009
Media contact: Claudia Weber Kommunikation
weber@claudia-weber-kommunikation.de // phone +49 170 735 77 75
The SEVEN SCREENS are located next to the OSRAM building at the urban freeway, Mittlerer Ring, Munich, Germany.
