Spaces #4

Experimental film has no fixed home. Its rootlessness has made it a nomadic genre that must seek out places and occupy them temporarily in order to make an appearance. As a marginalized form, it has developed a particular sensitivity for capturing unstable, peripheral and liminal zones, which are among its recurring themes. In contrast to feature film, locations here are not used as backdrops for a story—for instance, in terms of the social positioning of fictional characters—but are instead surveyed as autonomous spheres of perception, experience becoming stages and projection surfaces for emotional and psychological processes, as well as revived memories. The topographical explorations discussed in this seminar trace the often invisible social, political, and cultural imprints within spaces and redefine the coordinates of on-screen/off-screen, inside/outside, private/public, local/global, and real/virtual.

Films by Shirley Clarke, Rob Crosse, Flatform, Gerhard Benedikt Friedl, Rebana John, Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk, Jeongwong Kim, Helen Levitt, Nicolas Provost, Peter Rose, Maki Satake, Paul Spengemann, Laura Waddington, Igor Zelić, Yu Zhe, and others.

Guests: Jan Locus, Lukas Marxt, Silke Schönfeld, Maya Schweizer, Susanna Wallin