Elena Brys + Femke Gelas: In Time

In Sidney J. Furie’s fea­tu­re film The Entity (1982), Barbara Hershey is vio­lent­ly attack­ed by a pre­sen­ce with no phy­si­ca­li­ty. Before his mas­ter­ful and play­ful rewor­king of this ori­gi­nal foot­a­ge in Outer Space (2000) and Dream Work (2002), Peter Tscherkassky alrea­dy uti­li­zed it for Get Ready (1999). 

From an idyl­lic sce­ne at the sea, slo­wed down like a memo­ry or a dream, Tscherkassky moves to a speedy car dri­ving by night.

Found foot­a­ge stream of con­scious­ness-mon­ta­ge die de frag­men­ta­ri­sche, cha­o­ti­sche en destruc­tie­ve aard van het bewust­zijn weer­spie­gelt. Over sys­te­men en vat­baar­heid, over per­cep­tie en toevlucht. 

“Cut word lines — Cut music lines — Smash the con­trol ima­ges — Smash the con­trol machi­ne — Burn the books — Kill the priests — Kill! Kill! Kill!” (William S. Burroughs, The Soft Machine)

Psychiatrists Convention, January 14, 1966: Velvet Underground​’s first public appe­a­ran­ce. A dan­ce par­ty at Stephen Shore’s apart­ment fol­lows the con­cert footage.

Wat is een thuis? Bij het ont­van­gen van een offi­ci­ë­le staats­brief uit Litouwen start een bevra­ging over iden­ti­teit, thuis­voe­len en tijd­s­er­va­ring. We gaan heen en weer tus­sen twee plek­ken die je thuis noemt. In de film zoe­ken we met beel­den naar ant­woor­den. Langzaamaan sij­pe­len tijd en her­in­ne­rin­gen bin­nen in het heden en ver­an­de­ren deze onze perceptie.

Super 8‑to-16mm blow-up

Footage is repe­a­ted­ly re-filmed – wor­kers at a con­struc­ti­on site, an inci­ne­ra­ti­on plant, indu­stri­al gra­vey­ards, an anten­na-like object resem­bling an ille­gi­ble and con­ti­nu­al­ly col­lapsing cip­her. Elaborate mul­ti­ple expo­su­res ren­der an unam­bi­guous rea­ding of the ima­ges impos­si­ble, let alo­ne their inte­gra­ti­on into a fic­ti­o­nal spa­ce. This dri­ves Tscherkassky to a point of no return – the film­strip stops or ​‘free­zes’ at the pro­jec­tor gate (hen­ce the tit­le), and burns up.

“The idea of the ​“fro­zen pic­tu­re” (free­ze fra­me) taken serious­ly.” (Peter Tscherkassky)

“The visu­al back­ground mate­ri­al for Freeze Frame con­sists of shots taken in a ​“rede­vel­op­ment area” in Berlin, i.e. old buil­dings short­ly befo­re their dem­o­li­ti­on, filmed through a loo win­dow which repe­a­ted­ly sli­des in front of the hou­ses like a shut­ter. These pic­tu­res are set in con­trast to pic­tu­res of visi­tors and par­ti­ci­pants at a neigh­bor­hood street fes­ti­val, the kind whe­re the city attempts to con­ce­al itself behind a poor imita­ti­on of vil­la­ge charm.” (Peter Tscherkassky)