St Vitus dance/celebrity dance © Gabriele Stötzer
Annual theme – curated by Lea Lünenborg
A radically different cinema unfolds in the Super 8 films of Erfurt artist Gabriele Stötzer: collective, physical, anarchic. The films were made underground, away from state production structures. In their formal freedom, Stötzer’s works mark a feminist and queer alternative to the official cultural apparatus.
Shown are:
- Trisal (1986) ca. 20 min.
- Veitstanz / Feixtanz (1988) approx. 20 min.
- Centaur (1988) 9 min.
- …didn’t I amuse you brilliantly? (1989) 12 min.
With introduction by Lea Lünenborg and discussion with filmmaker and film critic Claus Löser.
Trisal (1986) ca. 20 min
In “Trisal”, Gabriele Stötzer reworks the Greek legend that gave the ram its role in the firmament. The animal once saved two royal children and was slaughtered as a reward. Its fur was transformed into the Golden Fleece and its body became a constellation. Sacrifice, death and rebirth are the themes of this narrative short film, which works decidedly with female protagonists.
Veitstanz/Feixtanz (1988) 20 minutes
Ecstatically twitching bodies: the phenomenon of St Vitus’ dance dates back to the Middle Ages, when people danced in public to the point of unconsciousness. In 1988, 13 women and men in Erfurt practised it to the point of ecstasy. The different bodies suggest that we are all capable of moving as we wish in public spaces. Gabriele Stötzer defies the dreary GDR setting to create a space of her own that goes back to the pagan and evokes matriarchal origins. Her source is resistance. “This film, which was shot in the GDR – the land of socialist dictatorship – is an expression of the freedom that is inherent in all of us, if we take it,” says Gabriele Stötzer.
Centaur (1988) 9 min
In the experimental video “Kentaur”, Gabriele Stötzer turns the patriarchal tables with her camera in 1988. She objectifies male bodies and sexuality with relish. Her gaze glides over men’s faces, men’s bodies and the flanks of powerful horses.
…didn’t I amuse you brilliantly? (1989) 12 min
“In the backyard of a squatted house in Erfurt in midsummer 1989, when it was not yet foreseeable that the dictatorship would fall in autumn, I carried out a painting action against an erected mirror. The film is a pictorial declaration of war against the system that wanted to put me in a psychiatric ward or in prison because I would not give up putting myself individually and artistically in the public eye,” says Gabriele Stötzer about her short film “…didn’t I amuse you brilliantly?”
to Gabriele Stötzer:
Gabriele Stötzer has been exploring themes such as justice, self-determination and gender for over five decades. Her own body often plays a central role – not as an object, but as a scene of resistance and feminist self-assertion.
Gabriele Stötzer’s artistic practice is inextricably linked to her social and political commitment: In 1976, she was imprisoned in the GDR on charges of “defaming the state” because of a petition, whereupon she joined the literary-artistic underground and later co-founded the Erfurt women artists’ group. Many of her works formulate radical counter-proposals to state repression and standardisation by subverting boundaries and opening up space for vulnerability and longing.
(Source: Berliner Festspiele)
Guest:
CLAUS LÖSER, born in 1962 in Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz), has been creating texts, music and films since 1980, studied film in Potsdam-Babelsberg (diploma), freelance film critic and maker, author, musician and curator, Dr phil., lives in Berlin.
With an introduction by:
LEA LÜNENBORG was born in Münster, studied communication and media studies in Leipzig and Bremen and works in a film production company in Berlin. She is interested in society, gender and cinematic representation and has analysed the representation of women in DEFA films as part of her Master’s thesis.
