Linda Christanell
(1939, Austria)
By Olaf Moller
Linda Christanell (*1939, Vienna), a key figure of the Austrian avant-garde, found her way to cinema via the visual arts: First, she used film to explore her sculptures, study and document her performances. This led to a fascination for the art itself – its particularities as well as possibilities. It’s telling that Christanell didn’t immediately start making films when she fell in love with the medium, but preferred to first explore the possibilities of combining images and sounds by way of slide shows. It seems as if Christanell had to first deal with all the elements cinema is made of separately – she needed to get a good sense of its components before she could marry them. Soon Christanell filmmaking autonomized: starting with Es war ein merkwürdiger Tag (1979), cinema - its function as a mirror of her own person as well as of society and history - became the moving force of her works. The focus of such diverse works as Anna (1980) or For You (1984) is the intertwinedness of remembrance and longing, desire and violence, sensuality and transience. Christanell’s cinema is about all femininity (still) is, and can be, and should be, and perhaps must be.
Saturday, October 26, KSuns, 14.00-15.30*
*Olaf Moller, the curator of the Christanell program, will give a commentary to the films. The presentation will be in English.
Es war ein merkwürdiger Tag, 1979, 7 min, 16 mm
A film about searching for oneself. On any day of summer in a garden. A portrait seeks a story. Scene of the search is a mirror. The searching is symbolized in the exchange of dimensions: portrait instead of mirror, a picture of the filmmaker with the camera, portrait as a brooch detaching itself from the collage. The film ends by combining the portrait with a symbol of transitoriness. (Linda Christanell)
Anna, 1980, 40', 16 mm
From the voice-over narration: “Tuesday, 26 May 1981. Dear Linda. A cassette can be a strange thing, now at last I can tell you something again without it being in a letter, and now I have to think about what I want to say to you, at least you can hear my voice and that’s worth something already. Otherwise it’s really nice in Marburg. A real jungle has grown up around my house, ivy and blackberry bushes and flowers […]“. The film creates optical symbols on the theme "womanhood." Typical female surroundings are shown, as they are: females inside the house, a life full of glamour, fascination by the world of men. (Linda Christanell.)
Film Nr. 5., 1985, 11 min, 16mm Blow-Up S8
Staging of objects - objects for decoration - decoration is protection - "numino" - the mystery of being scared and fascinated. What decorates -changes - through decorating, strength is conveyed. (Linda Christanell)
All can become a rose, 1992, 8 min, 16mm
All can become a rose in the fire of the mind’s eye – Christanell’s semiotic associations begin where "every web of thoughts is an invitation to continue weaving” - a red tiger-skin, jewelry, a black corset – all objects that evoke eroticism. (Gabriele Szekatsch)