Light Movement 3: Werner Nekes

Light Movement 3.
26 March 2015, 19h30 (Note the change of venue! - address below)
facebook event here.


Werner Nekes




Diwan
1973,16 mm, color, 85 min.
(digital screening)

Sound: Anthony Moore
Cast: Ludi Armbruster, Nikolaus Hof, Rosmarie Liesen, Peter Könitz, Reinhild Lüders, Wolfgang Liesen, Geeske Hof-Helmers, Werner Nekes, Dore 0., Christian d'Orville, Ursula Winzentsen, Franz Winzentsen, Bernd Hof, Klaus Wyborny.
  
A film anthology in five installments: 1. sun-a-mul (16 min) 2. alternatim (15 min) 3. kantilene (17 min) 4. moto (16 min) 5. hynningen (21 min).


The fifth installment, "hynningen" was awarded the Bundesfilmpreis in Silber in 1975.

"Hynningen (Swedish for 'honey roof') begins with long multiple exposures of a landscape with a clearing, opening up to the horizon. In the middle of the clearing there is a simple log cabin of the type characteristic of Northern Europe or Quebec. There are actors a man and a woman - at the window, at the doorway, strolling in the grass, doubled or even tripled by multiple exposure. Traces they have left at different moments of the day and in the changing light appear as gentle phantoms. If our varying perceptions would outlast changes in location we would experience a strong sense of continuity and of repetition. This visual counterpart to the imperfect tense in grammar is amplified by three high tones on a background of sinus curves. These gradually reach a higher pitch. But this isolated house, filmed in the almost silent density of a Baudelarian 'Afternoon without end', that seems as if made to accommodate peace and meditation, does it not attain a sudden, bewildering presence? If it is true that the term 'to be' originally means 'to live' and 'to unfold' but also 'to dwell', taking into account both Indo-European roots (es, bhû) as well as the Germanic ‘wes', is one not, on seeing this dwelling place, invariably reminded of what Heidegger said about Man as 'the keeper of his being'? Is this honey roof not the place of sheltered existence? No matter what Nekes himself thinks about his films and no matter how dominant the primacy of technique and structure, has he not with DIWAN begun erecting a metaphysical oeuvre, in which unto the cinema is bestowed the task of concealing and revealing existence as such? This is precisely the purpose that according to Heidegger constitutes Man's oppressive privilege, Man who is subjected to the painful experience of boredom and of Angst. The end of the film is as cheerful as it is mysterious: we are led into the house with the honey roof. In front of a window, open as in the paintings of Magritte, the inhabitants walk, in multiple exposure, naked and silent..."(L'Art Vivant, Paris, Oct. 1974).




Werner Nekes

Werner Nekes was born in 1944 in Erfurt and studied linguistics and psychology in Freiburg. He then went to Bonn in 1964 where he was a head of the University Film Club and later chairman of the FIAG. He developed friendships with film directors, sculptors and painters. These included Dore 0., his companion and collaborator since 1967.
He began with painting in 1965 with diverse materials and objects and started his practice of film, first with 8mm moving and on to 16mm. He decided to free the film from narration and psychology and organized his films according to temporal units and structural systems.
In spring 1967, his films were rejected by the Kurzfilmtage of Oberhausen. Thus, Nekes organized a counter-event.
The same year in November, he came to Hamburg with Dore 0., whom he married the following month. He was a co-founder of the Hamburg cooperative of filmmakers and was a co-organizer of the « Hamburger Filmschau » in 1967. From 1973, he travelled all over the world, giving seminars about film theory and having retrospectives. He moved to Mülheim an der Ruhr in summer 1978. 
He co-founded the Filmbüro NW in 1980 and the ICNC (International Center for New Cinema) in Riga in 1988.
Nekes' work has been shown at major international museums and festivals, including The Museum of Modern Art New York, or the Kassel Dokumenta. He was also a professor: from 1969 to 1972 and 2004 to 2006 at the Academy of Fine Arts (Hochschule für Bildende Künste) in Hamburg, from 1981 to 1982 at Wuppertal University, from 1982 to 1984 at the Kunsthochschule Offenbach, and, from 1990-96 at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. 
Furthermore, Nekes has compiled one of the most important private collections of artefacts documenting 500 years of pre-cinematographic experiments as well as developments in the early history of film, focusing on spatial and temporal principles of representation.



(biography text adapted from lightcone.org)


With thanks to the office of Werner Nekes for permission to show the work


-


Light Movement 3.
26 March 2015, 19h30

This time hosted at:

Echo Bücher

Grüntaler Straße 9

13359 Berlin


U8 Pankstrasse
S-bahn Gesundbrunnem
M13, M50 Grüntalerstrasse



-

FOLLOW THE SERIES ON FACEBOOK :

facebook.com/lightmovementseries