Wednesday Talks

Ulrike Ottinger, artist and film-maker, participate in documenta 11, shows her documentary China. The Arts – The People (Germany 1985, 270 min., German subtitles).

In this four and a half hour documentary or filmic travelogue, Ulrike Ottinger tries to impart new ways of seeing a foreign culture: "In my previous films I have dealt with the themes of exoticism, minorities and their differing role behaviour within their own culture. Now I am interested in expanding this theme, in getting to know a 'real exoticism' in a foreign land and in a different culture. I am attempting to conduct a visual discourse with my camera about exoticism as a question of point-of-view. In making the film, I was influenced by Chinese naturepainting: by the use of the scroll, which not only demands a different method of painting, but a different way of viewing - rolling out the scroll, focusing in on details, wandering to and fro, viewing piecemeal. So if I was filming a market square, for example, I'd pan very slowly and steadily across the square, rather than trying to capture the image in toto.”