LaborBerlin Spring Screening

LaborBerlin is proud to take part in the the Goethe Institute’s workshop “Was macht das Medium? Kunst im Zeitalter des Digitalen”.

On Friday May 24th, a group of international Goethe Institute staff members will receive a talk by LaborBerlin members Michel Balagué, Arne Hector, Minze Tummescheit, Linn Löffler and Oscar de Gispert, with the title “Ökonomie / Markt und die Un/Abhängigkeit von der Industrie” (The Economy/Market and In/dependece from the Industry).

Following the lecture we’re happy to invite everyone to Stattbad Wedding for an evening of films and performances by LaborBerlin members and friends. With by films by Ute Aurand, Michel Balagué, Robert Beavers, Distruktur, Milena Gierke, Jakob Kirchheim & Teresa Delgado, Lewis Lloyd, Doireann O´Malley, Deborah S. Phillips, Björn Speidel, Sophie Watzlawick and Jeff Weber, and performances by Clara Bausch & Linn Löffler and Anja Dornieden & Juan David González Monroy.

Doors open at 8 p.m.
Screening starts at 9 p.m.
entrance: 3-5 €

Stattbad Wedding
Gerichtstrasse 65

Different Hands – Different Eyes

Anja Dornieden & Juan David González Monroy have been in Jakarta all month participating in the Ruangrupa ArtLab program.

On April 24th & 27th they will give a talk on LaborBerlin and the independent film lab model at the Technology Institute (ITB) in Bandung and the Goethe Institut in Jakarta. They will also present a screening of films by Christopher Becks & Peter Miller, Guillaume Cailleau & Ben Russell, Deborah S. Phillips, Thorsten Fleisch and Anja Dornieden & Juan David González Monroy.

On the 26th at the Ruangrupa Gallery they will give a 16mm shooting and developing workshop as well as a presentation about their film project on the phenomenon of the “Masked Monkeys”. They will speak about the results of their research on this marginal economic activity and the way it relates to issues of urban mobility and informal economic transactions.

Projektionen – Kunstraum t27

LaborBerlin members Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy are teaming up once again with Deborah S. Phillips to present an evening of films and performances on Super 8 and 16mm at Kunstraum t27. The screening will accompany the exhibition “Melos – Zwischen Räumen” which includes works by LaborBerlin friends Deborah S. Philips and Inger Lise Hansen.

With performances by Andreas Gogol, Klaus Eisenlohr and Yptu Enth and films by Tomonari Nishikawa, Rose Lowder, Emmanuel Lefrant, Jodie Mack and special guests from Film-Koop Vienna, Daniela Zahlner and Magdalena Pfeifer.

kunstraum t27 | Thomasstr. 27 | Berlin

LaborBerlin at Directors Lounge

LaborBerlin is pleased to present a selection of films and a performance by its members at the 9th Directors Lounge.

Monday, 11.02.2013 at 6:00 PM
Naherholung Sternchen | Berolinastraße 7 | 10178 Berlin / Mitte
(Ubhf- Schillingstraße behind Kino International / Rathaus Mitte)

Ritournelle by Christopher Becks & Peter Miller
2012 | 16mm | 3 Min

Rokh II by Distruktur
2012 | 16mm | 5 Min

Surface Chemistry by Imogen Heath
2012 | double 16mm projection | 3 Min

A Home Inside by Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy
2013 | live audiovisual presentation with three 16mm projectors | 20 Min

From eye to mouth, from mouth to eye @ Mindpirates

From eye to mouth, from mouth to eye:
A 16mm film screening by Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy

Wednesday, 06.02.2013 at 8:00 PM
Mindpirates | Schlesische Strasse 38 | Haus F (3rd Hinterhof) | 10997 Berlin

In the lost city of Inilosap film spectatorship was not considered a passive activity, much less entertainment. Film was considered a disease, a particularly contagious virus. One could not avoid it, and therefore had to be prepared for it. Children were not allowed to attend the films that were projected every night in the main square of the city. Attendance however was mandatory for all adults. To be allowed to watch a film, every child went through years of training. Completion meant entry into adulthood. At this stage they were lead into the main square and made to sit through their first screening with their backs to the screen. Nevertheless, on occasion, audience members were known to have perished while viewing the films. One story told of a man and a woman who burst into flames during a screening. They were hugging each other as they spontaneously combusted in the first row.

Most film rolls had no discernible creator. Although every citizen was trained in the use of cameras no one could recollect having created any particular set of images. Some films were credited to people that nobody seemed to know or remember. Because of its recognized danger the screen acquired sacred qualities. Films were screened in absolute silence and then discussed for days at a time. New edits were argued and then decided upon. Eventually the films supplanted the spoken word. The last found texts claim that the film virus mutated into a distinct type of telepathy and telekinesis. The Eyemouth they called it. Communication took place with and through the screen. The text states that with the power of their minds the films were reedited automatically and continuously throughout each screening. The films grew increasingly longer and the reediting process more elaborate. Before its demise, it seems the city had embarked on a mind controlled film project meant to supersede their known reality.

There is not much we know however about the specific contents of these Eyemouth films. At some point in time the screenings stopped and quite shortly thereafter all the citizens of Inilosap disappeared. A fire seems to have broken out afterwards erasing most traces of the city along with all the films. Some speculate that upon realizing their failure all the rolls of film were strewn across the entirety of the city. Every place and every object was wrapped in images of itself. Every citizen then wrapped him or herself in footage of themselves and then set him or herself on fire. Others suggest that it was the unprotected use of photographic chemicals that caused the fire and the death of all the citizens. Remains of what appears to be a rather large chemical factory have been found at an archeological site rumored to be the location of the lost city. Constant exposure to these chemicals would also lead to certain types of delusions and hallucinations that could explain the claims of spontaneous combustion, telepathy and telekinesis found in the historical record.

What you will see then is an attempt to recreate one of the Eyemouth film rolls. Because of the limited information that we have been able to obtain about their content or the specific manner in which they were assembled, we can most certainly say that our attempt will be a failure. However if any case of telepathy or telekinesis might arise please do not panic. You are free to manipulate the films with your mind as you please. But beware of the dangers involved. Reality has a tendency to resist control.

Program segments (with special intermissions):
You dirty little rat. Took us for a ride, did you? 16mm, 3 min, color, silent.
Awe Shocks 16mm, 3 min, color, sound.
Enter 16mm, 5 min, color, sound.
Eigenheim 16mm, 16 min. color, sound.
Come and dance with me 16mm, 4 min, color, sound.
How To Catch A Mole 16mm, 9 min, color, sound.
Oro Parece 16mm, 6 min, black & white, silent.

More info at Mindpirates

Film and Performance by Stefano Canapa

LES CHAMPS BRULANTS – BURNING FIELDS
A film by Catherine Libert et Stefano Canapa
Documentary, FRA/ITA ,72 min., 2010, with English subtitles

Apart from the usual grand narrative history of the Italian cinema and the announcements of its demise, there is another history, that of an invisible, oppositional cinema, that no storm can destroy because it will always return, spontaneous and free, like the couch grass along the side roads. Les Champs brûlants is the fourth episode of Chemins de traverse, a road movie that crosses Italy, from north to south, in search of independent cinema, believed to be dead but alive and well. From the ruins of the Circo Massimo in Rome, via its forgotten suburbs, to the rubble of Pozzuoli, the film seeks out a form of ”survival cinema”, that of Beppe Gaudino and Isabella Sandri.

Like a visual musical piece, Petrolio is a complex composition built up out of simple, clear sequences. This particular film sequence – two teenagers on a pier – is the subject and the starting point of a trajectory that passes through minimal changes and progressive superimpositions to the heart of the film material. The depth to which the film material is explored is the result of combining various laboratory techniques (chemical/photographic) ahead of time with an array of projector manipulations (optical/mechanical) while the work is performed live onto a screen. The performance is a live audiovisual 16mm duet.

Thursday, 17.01.2013 at 8:00 PM
Panke e.V. Gerichtstr. 23, Hof V. 13347, Wedding, Berlin
http://www.pankeculture.com/how-to-find-us/

Expanded Cinema / Live Soundtrack

The New Year kicks off with an exciting evening of expanded cinema and live soundtracks, co-hosted by Salon Bruit and LaborBerlin at NK Projekt, Elsenstr. 52, 12059 Berlin. The program features a spectrum of different styles and formats, with musicians improvising to films, films driven by sound, and sound transforming images.

Expanded Cinema:
Chloe Griffin, Michael Busch
Guillaume Cailleau + Jan Slak

Live Soundtracks:
Christopher Becks + Axel Dörner
Doireann O’Malley + Okkyung Lee
Sylvia Schedelbauer + Jeff Surak
Paul Clipson + Aidan Baker

Friday, January 4th
Doors 22:00 Performances 22:30
NK Projekt
Elsenstr. 52, 12059 Berlin

Christopher Becks makes films that circumvent intentionality to reflect (on) the act of seeing. Select screenings include the Centre Pompidou, Austrian Film Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and Toronto International Film Festival. http://www.christopherbecks.com/

Aidan Baker is a Canadian musician & writer alternately based in Toronto & Berlin. A classically trained multi-instrumentalist, his primary instrument is the electric guitar with which he creates music ranging from experimental/drone to ambient post-rock to contemporary classical. In addition to his solo work, Baker also plays with the group projects Nadja, Caudal, and B/B/S/. Baker has released numerous albums on such labels as Important Records, Alien8 Recordings, and Beta-lactam Ring Records. http://www.aidanbaker.org/

A former member of the experimental multi-media theater group LUXUS BERLIN, Michael Busch is a filmmaker and composer who creates music for both cinema and theater. His most recent film-performance DAS ELEKTRISCHE PARADIES premiered at the Berlinale in 2010, selected presentations include the Sao Paulo Biennale, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museo Reina Sophia in Madrid. http://www.buschfilm.de/

Guillaume Cailleau’s work encompasses film, installations, video and performance. He is interested in disclosing things that are just next to obvious, while exploring and exploding the boundaries of the cinematic image; often in collaboration with other filmmakers, musicians, graphic designers, painters, scientists, theater directors, and children. His work has been shown internationally, at Centre Pompidou, Royal Ontario Museum Toronto, Haus der Kulturen der Welt Berlin, and at the International Film Festivals in Berlin, New York and Rotterdam, and at the Shortfilm Festival in Oberhausen etc.

Paul Clipson often collaborates on films, live performances and installations with sound artists and musicians such as Tarentel, projecting largely improvised in-camera edited experimental films employing multiple exposures, dissolves and macro imagery that bring to light subconscious preoccupations and unexpected visual forms. Paul has shown his films internationally in various galleries, festivals and performance venues. http://www.withinmirrors.org/

Chloé Griffin was born behind a gas station in El Cajon, California, and raised in Canada. She is based in Berlin and has recently lived in Cairo and Beirut. She makes films involving cut-up and hand painting processes and is currently working on a book about the life of Cookie Mueller.

Axel Dörner has worked together with numerous internationally respected figures in the fields of “Improvised Music”, “Composed Contemporary Music”, “Jazz” and “Electronic Music”. He has developed a unique style of trumpet playing based in part on unusual, often self-invented techniques. He has toured in Europe, North and South America, Australia, Japan and Asia (Hongkong) and appeared on numerous CD and record releases.

Okkyung Lee has been developing her own voice in a contemporary cello performance, improvisation and composition. With her solid classical training as a foundation, she incorporates jazz, sounds, Korean traditional music, and noise with extended techniques to create her unique blend of music. http://okkyung.wordpress.com/

Doireann O’Malley is oringinally from Ireland, she Lives & Works in Berlin. Her work encompasses film, photography, poetry, drawing, found images and sound. Selected upcoming shows include: Triskel Arts Center, Cork, Ireland; Elisa Platteau & Cie Galerie, Brussels; Galerie Parisa Kind, Frankfurt Am Main.

Sylvia Schedelbauer’s films negotiate the space between broader historical narratives and personal, psychological realms mainly through poetic manipulations of archival footage. Awards include the Gus Van Sant Award for Best Experimental Film (2012), the German Film Critics’ Award (2008) and the VG BildKunst Award (2007). http://sylviaschedelbauer.com/

Jan Slak, drummer, student at Drum Academy Berlin, plays with punk rock bands, studies jazz and performs with multimedia artists.

Jeff Surak operates in the netherworld between composed and improvised music, moving between musique concrete, drone, noise, & free improvisation using whatever sound implements at hand. Surak runs the Zeromoon label and directs the annual Sonic Circuits Festival in Washington DC. http://violet.zeromoon.com/

Salon Bruit is an open platform for international artists of various backgrounds who experiment with sound, art, music and noise in unconventional ways. Activities include concerts, performances, independent radio projects, creative workshops and exhibitions in Berlin and other European cities. http://salonbruit.org/

LaborBerlin is a non-profit, independent film collective, open to everyone interested in artist-run initiatives. Focussing on analogue film practice, which embraces a hands-on D.I.Y. approach to experimental film production. http://laborberlin.wordpress.com/