Guests: Friedl Kubelka vom Gröller & Veronika Eberhart (II)
9 is 1 and 10 is none © Veronika Eberhart
Art Cinema OFFoff is very honored to welcome Friedl Kubelka vom Gröller and Veronika Eberhart to Ghent.
Austrian artist, musician and researcher Veronika Eberhart presents a two-day program at OFFoff, parallel to her solo exhibition Alles pelt zich at KIOSK on Campus Bijloke on Campus Bijloke, on view until December 21.
Friedl Kubelka vom Gröller and Veronika Eberhart will be our guests on Monday, November 10, and Tuesday, November 11. On Tuesday, Veronika Eberhart’s 9 is 1 and 10 is none (2022) will be shown in dialogue with Impatience (1928), the Belgian classic by Charles Dekeukeleire. The themes and visual language of this film resonate in a striking way with the work of both Veronika Eberhart and Friedl Kubelka vom Gröller.
Veronika Eberhart (b. 1982, Bad Radkersburg) is an artist, filmmaker, musician and researcher working at the intersection of sculpture, text, sound and moving image. Her practice unfolds through speculative gestures, navigating the space between archive and fiction. Grounded in feminist and class-based theory, her work draws on a background in sociology (University of Vienna and Copenhagen) and fine arts (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna). Her films have been presented at international festivals including Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen and Porto/Post/Doc.
Friedl Kubelka vom Gröller (b. 1946, London) is a highly influential Austrian artist whose diverse practice encompasses conceptual photography, experimental filmmaking, feminist art and Freudian psychoanalysis. Central to her work is an ongoing exploration of the psychological dimensions of portraiture, weaving together these varied disciplines. She is also the founder of two pioneering institutions in Vienna: the School for Artistic Photography (1990) and the School for Independent Film (2006), both of which have been instrumental in shaping generations of artists and filmmakers.
Charles Dekeukeleire
Impatience
Four motifs make up this visual poem of carnal desire: a nude woman clasps her motorcycle, the countryside passes at high speed, the motor vibrates. Geometric forms erupt onto the screen.
An introductory title informs the spectator that the film will be composed of four series of images, “the motorbike, the woman, the mountain and abstract blocks”, elements which serve as the starting point for Dekeukeleire to construct his film according to very precise parameters. The rhythm is given by a mathematical fragmentation of the film’s running time, divided up into temporal segments where the four repertories of images succeed each other in every possible combination with no respect for either melodic line or dramatic tension. This investigation into the positioning of shots proceeds in conjunction with a study of the scale of a fragmentation which lifts the shown object out of reality and gives it a function close to abstraction. This film counts amongst those which, resisting all emotional seduction or aesthetic fascination, have gone furthest in the demand for pure and fundamental experimentation.
“Looking at Dekeukeleire again, Impatience is so much about the machine and female sexuality. And all of a sudden I see so many parallels to my film, although it is very different at the same time.” (Veronika Eberhart)
Impatience © CINEMATEK
Veronika Eberhart
9 is 1 and 10 is none
Two enigmatic verses from a witchcraft manual draw attention to the figure of the witch. In an abandoned woodworking shop, alongside running machinery, the four performers, who all come from queer-feminist contexts, work with a choreography of gestures derived from former working practices, early modern witch poses that have been passed down, and elements of contemporary dance. Scenes around an abandoned border post reference early border demarcations and the associated resistance during the Middle Ages. In her timeless film 9 Is One and 10 Is None, Veronika Eberhart alludes to a publication by Silvia Federici, Caliban and the Witch (2004), which, starting in the late Middle Ages and moving into the transition to capitalism, examines how the female body was disciplined and destroyed.
9 is 1 and 10 is none © Veronika Eberhart
9 is 1 and 10 is none © Veronika Eberhart