From: ADAM ABRAMS (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Mar 26 2009 - 10:42:40 PDT
ah, sounds like a great show. i've read about wyborny's films. where are the prints from? how long will they be in the US?
cheers,
adam
jefferson presents...
> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:55:14 -0400
> From: email suppressed
> Subject: Larry Gottheim introduces rare screening of Klaus Wyborny films at Light Industry next week (3/31)
> To: email suppressed
>
> Light Industry
> http://www.lightindustry.org
>
> Two Films by Klaus Wyborny
> Introduced by Larry Gottheim
>
> Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 7:30pm
> 220 36th Street, 5th Floor
> Brooklyn, New York
>
> Light Industry presents two films by Klaus Wyborny. A key figure of
> experimental cinema in Europe and a noted influence on artists like Derek
> Jarman, his work is all too rarely seen in the US. We feel a revival is long
> overdue.
>
> Pictures of the Lost World, 1974, 16mm, 50 mins
> "Wyborny trained as a mathematician, worked as a cameraman on Werner
> Herzog's Kasper Hauser. He first attracted the attention of the New York and
> London avant-gardes five years ago for his elliptical narratives, Dallas
> Texas - After The Gold Rush (1971) and The Birth of a Nation (1973). Their
> plots, 'collapsed' by the optical transformation and repetition of
> individual shots, move from anecdotal narrative to an examination of
> narrative construction itself. His method was analogous, in a way, to that
> of novelists like Robbe-Grillet (e.g. Jealousy), though Wyborny was far more
> interested in the actual materials of film than were the french 'new
> novelists' when they turned to cinema. His work was further characterised by
> a romantic appreciation for desolate, ruined vistas. The 1975 Pictures of
> the Lost Word is clearly an outgrowth of this concern and, in its virtual
> abandonment of storyline, forms a bridge to his subsequent, more purely
> structural films.
>
> "For 50 minutes or so Pictures presents a series of static, or gently
> swaying images which are sometimes bucolic landscapes but more often
> industrial ones (sludgy harbours, power lines, abandoned railway stations or
> deserted factories). The interplay between the two sets of imagery is not
> simple. Wyborny photographs his modern ruins at their most ravishing - at
> dawn or sunset, partially reflected in the water or glimpsed through the
> trees. Shots recur throughout, optically printed into brilliant colours or
> else, given the washed out quality of fifth generation Xeroxes. As there are
> few people shown, one's impression is of a planet that is populated mainly
> by cows, barges and hydraulic drills.
>
> ³On the soundtrack, a pianist improvises a slow, chord-heavy piece that adds
> to an overall sense of lush melancholy. Towards the end, Wyborny begins to
> parody his own nostalgia. The images repeat in rapid-fire clusters while the
> pianist switches to a maddening seven-note phrase, playing it over and over,
> like a record stuck in a groove. In its mock symphonic form, the film is an
> ironic exaltation of the Œpastoral ideal¹ (still a strong strain in both
> British and German avant-garde films) as it celebrates the entropic beauty
> of the same satanic mills that drove Wordsworth in the countryside and
> Schiller to decry the 'degeneration' of European culture...If Wyborny's work
> is a harbinger, the European avant-garde is surely in the midst of a
> full-scale renaissance. " - J. Hoberman, Village Voice (1978)
>
> Unreachable Homeless, 1978, 16mm, 25 mins
> Could it be true that Bergson's dream of durée in the movies can't be
> achieved by following the intentions of Lumiere's patterns? That it can only
> be reached by misusing an invention that wanted to depict continuous
> movement and thus carried the tormenting germs of representational time?
> That only the most terrifying destruction of physical continuity that is
> achievable by camera operations can give the spectator at least an idea of
> what durée can mean in film? The most admirable invention of the narrative
> cinema, the inevitable and systematic return - out - usually one of the
> worst carriers of non-durée - can become the Santa Maria that sails to
> reconquer the realms of real time? That nobody takes any notice of you? That
> the only trace of your appearance that is perceived by other people is your
> despicable body odour? If these questions and more torment you in your
> dreams and are a trouble to your days, you might find a few answers in
> watching Unreachable Homeless. The main character of this film is a person
> who wakes up one morning and realises that he is but a robot. In the course
> of the day his appearance changes and when finally night dissolves his
> identity, we participate in the most horrendous sexoaesthetic inversion any
> human has witnessed to date.
>
> Tickets - $7, available at door.
>
> About Light Industry
>
> Light Industry is a venue for film and electronic art in Brooklyn, New York.
> Developed and overseen by Thomas Beard and Ed Halter, the project has begun
> as a series of events at Industry City in Sunset Park, each organized by a
> different artist, critic, or curator. Conceptually, Light Industry draws
> equal inspiration from the long history of alternative art spaces in New
> York as well its storied tradition of cinematheques and other intrepid film
> exhibitors. Through a regular program of screenings, performances, and
> lectures, its goal is to explore new models for the presentation of
> time-based media and foster an ongoing dialogue amongst a wide range of
> artists and audiences within the city.
>
> About Industry City
>
> Industry City, an industrial complex in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, is home to a
> cross-section of manufacturing, warehousing and light industry. As part of a
> regeneration program intended to diversify the use of its 6 million square
> feet of space to better reflect 21st century production, Industry City now
> includes workspace for artists. In addition to offering studios at
> competitive rates, Industry City also provides a limited number of low-cost
> studios for artists in need of reasonably priced space. This program was
> conceived in response to the lack of affordable workspace for artists in New
> York City and aims to establish a new paradigm for industrial
> redevelopment--one that does not displace artists, workers, local residents
> or industry but instead builds a sustainable community in a context that
> integrates cultural and industrial production. For more information:
> http://www.industrycityartproject.org
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.