A programme focusing on the relationship between Jürgen Böttcher's films and his equally important work as a painter. Three variations of painted Transformations on film and a sensitive portrait of an older colleague, the contructivist artist Hermann Glöckner.
The screening will be introduced by Diana Mavroleon
Transformations - Trilogy (Postcards / Verwandlungen, 1 – 3).
In the early 1980s Jürgen Böttcher took a break from documentary film and embarked on what was to become the only feature-length experimental film ever to be made under the auspices of the official DEFA studios. A total anomaly in the output of the DEFA, it ignited a whole spectrum of experimentalism and underground filmmaking in the GDR. The film was shot in the privacy of Böttcher’s own very modest apartment, (he always refused to join the privileged professionals residing in the greener Berlin suburbs). Also visible in the film, the flat becomes a space of reflection and projection for a very personal, artistic self-investigation: Böttcher paints over art postcards with subjects from his favourite painters. Later animated and set to an edgy montage-soundtrack, the three films fuse the work of Böttcher, the filmmaker, and Böttcher/Strawalde, the painter, connecting it with the traditions of the film avant-garde (Stan Brakhage, Jan Švankmajer).
Postcards 1; Potter's Bull (Verwandlungen, Teil 1: Potters Stier)
GDR 1981, colour, DCP (35mm), 15 mins. Without dialogue.
Postcards II; Venus after Giorgione (Verwandlungen, Teil 2: Venus nach Giorgione)
GDR 1981, colour, DCP (35mm), 21 mins. Without dialogue.
Postcards III; Woman at the Clavichord (Verwandlungen, Teil 3: Frau am Klavichord)
GDR 1981, colour, DCP (35mm), 17 mins. Without dialogue.
(53 minutes)
A Brief Visit with Hermann Glöckner (Kurzer Besuch bei Hermann Glöckner)
Hermann Glöckner (1889 – 1987) was one of the outstanding loners of the fine arts community of the GDR. Never attempting to gain public recognition he pursued his ascetic-constructivist aesthetic vision without compromise over the course of decades. Filming the older, fragile, yet fully focused Glöckner working in his studio, Böttcher, clearly fascinated, is heard off-screen gently questioning the artist, and likely reflecting on his own works that for over two decades were forbidden to be publicly exhibited.
GDR 1984, b/w, DCP (35mm), 32 mins. With English subtitles.
Total Running Time: 85 minutes
Diana Mavroleon works with experimental and documentary film. She is a programme maker for Resonance Radio, a founder member of European Media Arts Network and a correspondent for S.E. Asia. She is currently researching a documentary feature on: ‘The impact of globalization on the hereditary musicians of the Thar Desert in Western Rajasthan’. Diana is also a qualified bio-dynamic gardener and landscape/garden designer.
Back
