Curated by Olaf Stüber and Jaro Straub
In a twelve-week online program, the series KINO SIEMENSSTADT engages with the question of how the themes of space and architecture are reflected in artists’ films and video art today. How does contemporary art succeed in translating urban history and stories into moving images and to what extent can it further the current discourse on (historical) architecture, even and particularly when its intentions reach beyond the purely documentary?
To the Archive KINO SIEMENSSTADT
Program #5, Friday, 26th June at 6pm
Anja Kirschner & David Panos
The Empty Plan (2010) 78 min
Program #3, Friday, 12th June at 6pm
Amie Siegel
The Architects (2014) 33 min
Program #1, Friday, 29th May at 6pm
Anri Sala
The Long Sorrow (2005, 13 min)
Answer Me (2008) 5 min
KINO SIEMENSSTADT from 29 May 2020 – 20 August 2020
The title KINO SIEMENSSTADT refers to the former film theatre at Nonnendammallee 96 in the direct vicinity of SCHARAUN – Interdisciplinary Project Space for Art and Architecture. As one of two cinemas in Berlin Siemensstadt, it was one of the few entertainment facilities for Siemens workers and their families from 1931 to 1962. Films are no longer shown here today. Like so many cinemas, it had to make way for other purposes: presently, the textile discount chain KIK offers its goods there.
The scenario of endangered or even perishing cinemas has existed longer than Corona. Even before the pandemic, movie theatres were reporting striking declines not only regarding the numbers of visitors but also the quality of films. Over its course, the shutdown seems to have amplified this trend in recent weeks: some of the new productions didn’t even take the “detour” via cinemas but opened directly as streams on Netflix and Co instead. The Siemensstadt cinema will certainly not be the last of its kind forced to yield to discount chains.
Meanwhile, the art scene and not least SCHARAUN with KINO SIEMENSSTADT are opening up to new experimental realms in the face of restricted access to real-world exhibition spaces and the no longer existent movie theatre, in an attempt to determine whether the presentation of art is also possible on the Internet as a simulation of cinema. The moving image — artistic film and video — seems particularly appropriate, seeing that consumers have grown increasingly accustomed to streaming services in recent years. Nonetheless, the question remains: does this really work in the art context?
To find out, Jaro Straub, director of Project Space SCHARAUN, invited Olaf Stüber to collaborate on programming a series with a special — and obvious — focus on architecture and the city. The series opens on Friday 29th May at 6 pm with two films by Anri Sala. “Long Sorrow“ from 2005, filmed on the 18th floor of a residential building in Berlin’s Märkisches Viertel, creates a cinematic sightline to Berlin-Siemensstadt’s modernist settlement architecture where SCHARAUN is based. The films will be available online at www.scharaun.de for six days, before the countdown to the next program sets in.
Films by Filipa César, Ofir Feldman, Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, Dani Gal, Andy Graydon, Claire Hooper, Anja Kirschner & David Panos, Nina Könnemann, Knut Klaßen & Carsten Krohn, Korpys/Loeffler, Sophie Nys, Mario Pfeifer, Anri Sala, Amie Siegel, Verena von Beckerath, Shingo Yoshida and Tobias Zielony are scheduled to follow in a weekly cycle until the end of August.