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Image archives

Exhibition:

February 11 to April 1, 2001

Kunst-Werke, Berlin

Sessions

Exhibition:

February 10 to March 24, 2001

Contemporary Fine Art, Berlin

Ulrike OTTINGER [english] > Exhibitions > Kunst-Werke, Berlin & Contemporary Fine Art, Berlin

Bildarchive & Sessions

Bildarchive & Sessions – Texts

Anselm Franke: Giving Form to Reality

In her film work, Ulrike Ottinger doesn´t proceed from dialogue. Rather she places found and produced images at the center of her work, developing the scripts out of these. Preceding is a research process, the accruement of a visual archive which later forms the film´s image resource and to a certain extent becomes an important component of the final script.

Katharina Sykora: Ulrike Ottinger – Sessions

'There's still always a first time. Reading, the imagination, the confrontation with reality. Must imagination shy away from encountering reality, or do they love each other? Can they become allies? Do they change when they meet? Do they swap roles? It's always the first time.'
(Lady Windermere, in Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia.)

Ulrike Ottinger took her first photograph at the age of nine, on a canal boat in Amsterdam. Two Indian gentlemen, one in a trench coat, the other wearing a turban with a well?tailored suit, smile for the camera. When she asked if they would mind having their picture taken, they kindly agreed.

Ulrike Ottinger: Stationenkino – Kleine Geschichte des Erzählens in freien Bildern

Was ist das, das uns so gefällt am Geschichten erzählen? Was ist diese unstillbare Lust immer wieder die (selbe) Geschichte im neuen Gewand, in neuen Bildern zu sehen?

Eine der ältesten Dramaturgien ist die der Stationen. Sie ist zutiefst mit den frühen Erfahrungen der Menschheit verbunden. Die Nomaden folgten den Herden durchs Grasland, Wälder, Gebirge, Schluchten, Steppen, Wüsten, Seen, Flußläufen, Tundra und Taiga. Aber nicht nur die Landschaften mit ihren sehr unterschiedlichen Herausforderungen wechselten, sondern auch die Jahreszeiten.