FACHADAS EN CRISIS/ FACADES OF CRISIS (G/NO/ARG, 2010)

OPENING december 13th, 19hs. open from december 13th-20st 2011. CLUB CULTURAL MATIENZO, Buenos Aires. multiple channel video/ space installation. Supported by Berliner Senat/ Internationaler Kulturaustausch. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V.
concept and realization: Veronika S. Bökelmann, Anett Vietzke

http://clubculturalmatienzo.blogspot.com/
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(Castellano)

"The installation captures a national crisis from the people´s point of view. It does not contain statistics or glossy and dynamic story-telling of the news, but gives space for people whose everyday life has suddenly erupted. The power of the artwork lies in its direct and modest approach, voicing out a political statement which has many dimensions and tones."Jury statement 24. Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Hanna Haaslahti (FIN), Johannes Auer (G), Mark Lee (CH)

The video/space installation explores the consistency and social relevance of architectural safety measurements in the metropolis of Buenos Aires. The installation juxtaposes the rigid structure of metal bars with the personal experiences of ten inhabitants of the city reflecting the events of 2001 and their effects for life in the city. The descriptions of the interviewees from distinctive social backgrounds deal with trust and mistrust, utopia and dream. The installation connects people, who due to increasing social segregation and withdrawal are more and more isolated from each other. All interviewees embody with actual relevance the fragile interrelation of individual life plans and the categories of a global capitalism.

Interviewed persons: Teresa Petrana Alaguibe, Marta Bodo, Walter Christian Citzenmaier, Lic. Eduardo Grimoldi, Claudia Rosenberg, Nestor Piquero, María Graciela Ponce, César Saldaña , José Saphir, Florencia Arbós

ARGENTINA VICE VERSA. curated by Veronika S. Bökelmann and Anett Vietzke

PROGRAM: ARGENTINA VICE VERSA. SJOKK OG VIRKELIGHET I ARGENTINSK FILM (1998 - 2011). FILMCYCLE & SYMPOSIUM. CINEMATEKET OSLO. SEPT. 27TH - OCT 6TH. www.nfi.no. 

The event is realized under the patronage of the Argentine Embassy in Oslo with support of the Norwegian Filminstitute. It is funded by Fond Fritt Ord and Fond Film og Kino.

“It is easier to imagine the end of the world
than to imagine the end of capitalism.”
Slavoj Žižek.

INTRODUCTION.
Argentinian cinema till today indicates how deeply neo-liberal policies and their failure have penetrated the organisation of labor, family, intimacy and public life. Even though the country´s economic break down began in the 90ies, it meant a massive shock to the country´s population when in 2001 the Argentinian state had to declare its bankruptcy. The economic crisis signified an all-embracing representational crisis: People lost faith in the stately system as democratic force, in money as reliable representative of value, as well as in mass media and their modes of representing reality. Parallel to Argentina´s economic degradation, the local film industry went through a internationally acclaimed creativity and quantity boom. The film makers succeeded to develop their genuine cinematographic language to mirror the radical transformations of society and concepts of reality. Their cinema has become a relevant inspiration and impulse for renewal.

BUDGET SHORTNESS AND INFORMAL PRODUCTION MODES.
The film industry in Argentina got heavily effected by the collapse. Costs for film stocks as imported products tripled with the rapid devaluation of the peso while funds massively had been cut down. Despite of budget shortness, film creators developed inspiring strategies to produce often without waiting for funds to come in. Literally filming in the grandmother’s living room, they were often supported by family members and friends as crew. Many directors took the role of producer, cinematographer or editor for others or produced their own films. Consequently, informal structures granted a greater artistic freedom and have led to a softening of fixed roles, gender boundaries and standard formulas of movie making.

PRESENTING AND RE-PRESENTING.
The financial constraints often unleashed synergetic effects with the film makers’ attempts to question established modes of reality representation. Most films reject both, symbolism and didactic political messages. Depicting highly subjective worlds, they investigate and introduce distinctive living environments of the people. Both due to budget limitation and as aesthetic choice, the films let enter physical reality in form of location, character, action, time or relation. Merging formal and narrative elements of documentary and fiction film, the movies question the strict distinction between the genres.

I LABOR, BODY, CIRCULATION.
This segment is dedicated to the interrelation of economic system and social bonds. The 90ies in Argentina were a time of artificial wealth, based on short-term profit-oriented privatizations, until this bubble burst with the crash. In SILVIA PRIETO (1998) Martin Rejtman shows with humor the unconcern of the 90ies and the weakening of social relations in times of total ephemerality. Jobs and partners are exchanged with the same easiness as the tester of the brandnew American washing powder “Brite“ is spread around. Pablo Trapero’s MUNDO GRUÁ – CRANE WORLD (1999) registers, how this lightness begins to be undermined by a threat of unemployment and the devaluation of work.

II INTIMACY AND DEGENERATION.
Rising unemployment and criminality accompanied by a media campaign claiming the threat of “the insecurity“ have led to an increasing social segregation in Argentina since the mid of the 90ies. There has been less and less mobility between the classes. The living worlds depicted by the curated films are increasingly closed systems. LA CIÉNAGA – THE SWAMP (Lucrecia Martel, 2001) shows the degeneration of a high-class family that tries to expel all danger of the outside world, like a lake without inflow that tends to tilt. LOS MUERTOS – THE DEADS (Lisandro Alonso, 2004) follows the journey of the outsider Vargas, when he gets released from prison, where he spent half of his life after seemingly having killed his brothers.

III IDENTITY RUPTURE.
Without stately protection thousands of people in Argentina lost money, future plans and identity in 2001. In CAMA ADENTRO – LIVE IN MAID (Jorge Gaggero, 2004) Señora Beba desperately tries to maintain the image of her former wealth. Her only support is her maid Dora, whose wages Beba cannot pay anymore. In the comedy ABRAZO PARTIDO – LOST EMBRACE (Daniel Burman, 2004), the Jewish-Argentine Ariel dreams of getting a Polish passport to escape the shop gallery in Buenos Aires, where he helps out his mother in her underwear-shop. Also on a national level Argentina experienced a shift of identity, from a country of opportunities it descends to a place of emigration back to Europe. The films denote how a crisis can open room for a further questioning of social role models and relationships. Shot during the high-peak of the crash, TODO JUNTOS – EVERYTHING TOGETHER (Federico León, 2002) describes the putridity of a couple unable to separate until a humiliating turning point. The actors are the director and his girlfriend themselves, who were actually splitting up.

IV ABSENCE OF THE STATE AND CRIME.
In the urban western UN OSO ROJO – A RED BEAR (Adrian Caetano, 2002) the state’s power is expressed exactly in its weakness as its failure heavily effects people’s lives. When Bear comes out of prison after the economic collapse of 2001, he finds an altered Buenos Aires where crime and self justice rule. EL CUSTODIO – THE MINDER (Rodrigo Moreno, 2007) describes the life of Rubén, guarding a minor important minister who is not really in danger. Arbitrariness, boredom and dependency create an unpredictable mixture that discharges at the film’s show-down. LOS RUBIOS – THE BLONDS (Albertina Carri, 2003) goes further back in Argentina´s history, following the traces of the director’s parents. Those were two of 30.000 that “disappeared“ during the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976 - 1983), kidnapped and killed by the state. Merging documentary and fictional elements in an subjective way, it reflects and challenges individual and collective memory and its institutionalization.

V OTROS MUNDOS. OTHER WORLDS.
The program´s closing section is dedicated to the latest tendencies of Argentine cinema as a future prospect. In these films the distinct living environments seem to reach out and touch each other in daily life, work, family or culture. LOS LABIOS – THE LIPS (Ivan Fund and Santiago Loza, 2010) pictures the experiences of three women from the city, who volunteer in a socially disadvantaged, rural environment. Instead of featuring social milieus the movie blurs the borders of the otherness and highlights encounter of significantly diverging realities with respect and openness. In SUEDEN (Gaston Solnicki, 2008) the compelling music of composer and conductor Kagel stars as main character, inspiring the world of film making. Kagel re-encounters his birth-place Buenos Aires after an absence of 35 years in order to work with local musicians.

DAILY PROGRAM IN CINEMATEKET OSLO. www.nfi.no
In five segments the event investigates the rupture of a social and economic reality in interdependence with the development of genuine aesthetics in contemporary Argentinean cinema. The thematic introduction based on interviews with the directors of the respective films, exclusively produced by the curators in 2011, offers essential background information in order to inspire a wide audience.


Tuesday, September 27th
18:00 OPENING: Welcome with Argentinian embassador.
18:30 Mariano Llinás, HISTORIAS EXTRAORDINARIAS (2008) 245min
(ca 21.00 Pause with Mate tea & whiskey)


Wednesday, September 28th
17:00 INTRODUCTION TALK & FILMMAKERS ON SCREEN (NO ENTRANCE FEE!)
Segment 1: BODY, LABOR, CIRCULATION.
18:30 Martin Rejtman, SILVIA PRIETO (1999), 92 min
20:30 Pablo Trapero, MUNDO GRUÁ – CRANE WORLD (1999), 90 min


Thursday, September 29th
Segment 2: INTIMACY AND DEGENERATION.
19:00 Lisandro Alonso, LOS MUERTOS – THE DEADS (2004), 78 min
20:30 Lucrecia Martel, LA CIÉNAGA – THE SWAMP (2001), 103 min


Friday, September 30th
Segment 3: IDENTITY RUPTURES.
18:00 Federico León, TODO JUNTOS - EVERYTHING TOGETHER (2002) 65 min
19:30 Jorge Gaggero, CAMA ADENTRO - LIVE-IN MAID (2004) 83 min
21:30 Daniel Burman, ABRAZO PARTIDO - LOST EMBRACE (2004) 99 min


Saturday, Oct 1st
Segment 4: ABSENCE OF THE STATE AND CRIME.
17:00 Albertina Carri, LOS RUBIOS - THE BLONDS(2003) 89 min
19:00 Israel Caetano, UN OSO ROJO - RED BEAR (2002), 95 min
21:00 Rodrigo Moreno, EL CUSTODIO - THE MINDER (2007), 95 min


Sunday, October 2nd
Segment 5: OTHER WORLDS.
17:30 Gaston Solnicki, SUEDEN (2008), 67 min
19:30 Ivan Fund and Santiago Loza, LOS LABIOS –THE LIPS (2010), 100 min
Finissage.


FILM REPETITIONS.
Tuesday, October 4th
18:30 Albertina Carri, LOS RUBIOS – THE BLONDS(2003) 89 min
20:30 Lucrecia Martel, LA CIÉNAGA – THE SWAMP (2001), 103 min


Wednesday, October 5th
18:30 Pablo Trapero, MUNDO GRUÁ – CRANE WORLD (1999), 90 min
21:00 Israel Caetano, UN OSO ROJO – RED BEAR (2002), 95 min


Thursday, October 6th
20:30 Ivan Fund and Santiago Loza, LOS LABIOS – THE LIPS (2010), 100 min

PROGRAM: ARGENTINA VICE VERSA. SJOKK OG VIRKELIGHET I ARGENTINSK FILM (1998 - 2011). FILMCYCLE & SYMPOSIUM. CINEMATEKET OSLO. SEPT. 27TH - OCT 6TH. www.nfi.no.

FACADES OF CRISIS (G/NO/ARG, 2010) multiple channel video/ space installation

Concept and realization: Anett Vietzke and Veronika Bökelmann
Gefördert von Senat von Berlin/ Internationaler Kulturaustausch und
Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e.V.

Showings.
Club Cultural Matienzo, Buenos Aires 13th to 20th December 2011
24. Stuttgarter Filmwinter. Festival for Expanded Media. TEN ROOMS. JURY AWARD, January 2011
GALERIE STADTGESTALT. Serge von Arx, Berlin. premiere, November 2010

"The installation captures a national crisis from the peoples point of view. It does not contain statistics or glossy and dynamic story-telling of the news, but gives space for people whose everyday life has suddenly erupted. The power of the artwork lies in its direct and modest approach, voicing out a political statement which has many dimensions and tones.", Jury statement 24. Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Hanna Haaslahti (FIN), Johannes Auer (G), Mark Lee (CH)

At 24. Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Festival for Expanded Media © VOLUMEN EXPRESS and friends

The video/space installation FACADES OF CRISIS explores the consistency and social relevance of architectural safety measurements in Buenos Aires. The installation juxtaposes the rigid structure of metal bars with the personal experiences of ten inhabitants of the city. The descriptions of the interviewees from distinctive social backgrounds depict the effects of the crisis: They deal with trust and mistrust, utopia and dream. The installation creates a communal space for people, who due to increasing segregation are more and more isolated from each other.

“Since the state has broken its own rules, people don’t trust each other any more.”, describes lawyer and notary Marta Bodo (Buenos Aires) her experience of the economic crash in Argentina in 2001. The crisis indicates the peak of the states extreme course of privatization and market deregulation following neoliberal advices. In 2001 thence, the government had to declare its bankruptcy. After the devaluation of the currency, private bank accounts were blocked by an executive order to avoid a bank rush. Thousands of people lost their savings, perspectives and self-perception literally over night without any governmental protection. Consequently the experience of precariousness and uncertainty has shaped biographies, architecture and daily life in the city of Buenos Aires significantly. The economic crisis signified an all-embracing representational crisis.

At GALERIE STADTGESTALT c/o Serge von Arx, Berlin

©Images by Wolfgang Busch/Anett Vietzke

Interviewed persons: Teresa Petrana Alaguibe (cleaning lady, has been living in an occupied house for many years), Marta Bodo (lawyer and notary), Walter Christian Citzenmaier (homeless, lives across the street of the government building), Lic. Eduardo Grimoldi (psychologist, specialist for anxiety and crisis), Claudia Rosenberg (former flight attendant, actress since 2001), Nestor Piquero (architect and designer), María Graciela Ponce (kioskera), César Saldaña (locksmith, worked for Peugeot until 2001), José Saphir (constructor, inventor), Florencia Arbós (schoolgirl, born in 2001).

FACADES OF CRISIS is based on research material of the documentary theatre installation (IM)POTENCIA. The performance has been realized in collaboration with Residencias del Sur (Buenos Aires), Sophiensaele (Berlin) and Black Box Teater (Oslo). It has been funded by Hauptstadtkulturfond (Berlin), Fond Fritt Ord (Norwegen), Norsk Kulturråd, Norsk Kulturråd Scenetekst (Norwegen) and Goethe Institute München and Oslo.

(IM)POTENCIA documentary theater installation (G/NO/ARG, 2010)

"A strong piece with subjective-documentary power," Argentinian film maker Jeanine Meerapfel about (IM)POTENICA.

Performers: Tamara Saphir, Juliana Piquero. Producer in Buenos Aires: Paula Baró, Martín Fernandez. Producer in Berlin: Hendrik Unger. Technical Director: Fabian Lehmann. Stagedesign: Annesofie Norn. Assistant Stagedesigner: Moh Portuondo Alvarez. Music: Timo Kreuser. Artistical and technical realisation: Kerstin Ergenzinger. Concept and realisation: Veronika Bökelmann and Anett Vietzke. Assistant Realisation and Dramaturgie: Lea Kalinna. Dramaturgie: Tatiana Saphir.

(IM) POTENCIA is a documentary theatre play dealing with the loss of identity of the people in Buenos Aires after the complete economic crash in 2001. Like no other place, Buenos Aires represents the fragile balance between individual life plans and their dependence on global economic systems. Today the architect Nestor Piquero (58) describes 2001 for his family and himself as a period of anxiety, impotence and hope. More or less over night thousands of people there lost their savings, perspectives and self-perception without any stately protection. Argentina, which always had felt closely connected to Western Europe, suddenly became a ‘Third World Country’ of South America. Consequently fear and the absence of safety but also arising dreams have manifested themselves in biographies, architecture and daily life. Nowadays life in Buenos Aires raises questions that mirror the European anxiety to lose financial and idealistic securities: What happens to people in an economic crisis? If the only certainty is, that you cannot rely on anything anymore, what does one dream of? Base of the performance are interviews with the inhabitants of Buenos Aires, the personal experiences of the authors and performers, images, sounds and objet trouves as subjective-documentary descriptions of everyday life in the post crisis of the metropolis. Urban culture of the so-called ‘first’ and ‘third‘ world functions as a two-way distorting mirror for transformation processes within society.

The performance is a collaboration with the Marstrand Festival VOL II at Black Box Teater (Oslo) and Sophiensaele (Berlin) and Residencias del Sur (Buenos Aires). (IM)POTENCIA is supported by Hauptstadtkulturfond 2010 (Berlin), Fritt Ord (Oslo), Norsk Kulturråd and Norsk Kulturråd Scenetekst (Oslo) and Goethe Institute München and Oslo.

Based on interviews with: Teresa Petrana Alaguibe, Marta Bodo, Walter Christian Citzenmaier, Lic. Eduardo Grimoldi, Claudia Rosenberg, Nestor Piquero, María Graciela Ponce, César Saldaña, José Saphir.

Actors off-stage: Gabi Ditisheim, Laureano Lozano, Maria Pia Poveda, Ignacio Sandoval, Maria Valeria Thompson, Juan Manuel Aranovich, Paula Morgan, Nicolas Malusardi.

Thank you: Mariela Arzadun, Tatiana Saphir, Kiosko Corrientes: Rodolfo Freire, Gustavo Zarate, Francisco Franek. Kiosko Boedo: Christian Sanchez, Gladys Varas, Susan Córdova, Lesly Córdova, Jorge Durand, Melody Sánchez, Yislei Ponce, Gerardo Naumann.

Fotos: Wolfgang Busch

SUEÑO Y CRISIS, relational performance (G/NO/ARG 2009)

 *pre-project of (IM)POTENCIA in Buenos Aires, Villa Crespo (Argentina).

 

In our Buenos Aires studio-kiosk we created a long dinner table in order to bring together all the people we had interviewed during our residency. We presented and discussed excerpts of our research materials such as images, sounds and texts. Our intention was to create a social sphere for exchange and encounter undermining a process of social segregation that has increased inrecent years in Buenos Aires like in many other place of our wourld. In SUEÑO Y CRISIS (Dream and crisis) an owner of a gated community was sitting besides man living on the streets sharing food and their different perceptions on the city. All photos in our documentation were taken by the 9 year old Florencia Arbós, who is born in 2001. Our relational performance became a little bit practised utopia.

Involved people.

Teresa Petrana Alaguibe (cleaning lady, has been living in an occupied house for many years), Marta Bodo (lawyer and notary), Walter Christian Citzenmaier (homeless, lives across the street of the government building), Lic. Eduardo Grimoldi (psychologist, specialist for anxiety and crisis), Claudia Rosenberg (sociologist, actress since 2001), Nestor Piquero (architect and designer), María Graciela Ponce (kioskera), César Saldaña (locksmith, worked for Peugeot until 2001), José Saphir (constructor, inventor), Florencia Arbós (schoolgirl, born in 2001). Ignacio Sandoval (actor), Nicolas Malusardi(unemployed musician) Paula Baró (Producer), Veronika Susanne Bökelmann and Anett Vietzke (concept & realization)

© photographs by Florencia Arbós, 9 years