Person
Freeze frame: the most absurd technique since the invention of the moving image. Through an elaborate process of duplicating the same image over and over again, it creates the illusion of stillness. In this stop motion film, identical figures perform the hopeless task of preserving blocks of ice.
Haunted by a little thing, a man gets driven to the edge.
The experimental film “sfumato” is based on a multi-channel video installation by Berlin-based artist Robert Seidel, pushing the limits of abstract painting in the digital age. In a time of complete virtualization of knowledge, work and monetary flows, painting finally can be in the same state of flux beyond the constraints of a physical material. The title refers to one of the four canonical painting modes of Renaissance art, a technique that emphasizes soft transition between colours and tones. By taking this concept of blurring clear lines and borders the spectral “all-over” composition offers a myriad of subtle gradations and erratic shifts of focal planes. “sfumato” unleashes a sublime moment of pure abstraction expanding the ideas of painting into an asymmetrical orchestration of video painting sequences. The source material is based on a convolute of analogue painting and drawing sketches by the artist, which were dissolved with a self-developed video synthesizer and fused into a continuous visual stream of prismatic colour volumes. “sfumato” is part of his ongoing research in the field of experimental, process-based “moving paintings”, which create a coherent and personal utopia of Robert Seidel, pointing towards the universal possibilities of art in the flow of history and its friction with today.
Imbued Life is a film about a young woman’s connection with the life force of nature. She uses her talent for taxidermy to “restore” the animals to their natural habitat. However, the true search for the answers begins when she starts finding a roll of undeveloped film in each of the animals she treats. Her obsession drives her to seek the explanation of the connection she feels, haunting her dreams, as well as her waking moments.
A dirty lake bursts its banks and begins to flood the town. At last there’s a good reason to keep the son at home. But in isolation, nightmarish associations start to mix with reality.