Remade Reproductions

In commercial film, a remake of successful material is routine. Studios assume (and they are usually right) that the original has been forgotten anyway, at least in cinema.

Art films are totally different. The value of a work increases with age. If the work has not completely disappeared from the screen, then it becomes worthy of a museum and thus becomes an “eternal” component of a canon. The remake of an artistic work is not directed toward the public; it is the artist’s imaginary dialogue with a stranger’s (or even his or her own) work. After Lumière - L’Arroseur arrosé picks up a classic from early cinema and tells a made-up story behind the famous images. The title, Return to the World of Dance (borrowed from the idea of a monster-film series) describes a series made over the course of a decade about the public’s relationship to contemporary dance. Hollywood Movie stages Nam June Paik’s aggressive directorial instructions to viewing mainstream films with the stars of exactly these films and thus leads the avant-garde back into the arms of entertainment. Well Then There Now is the animation of an unrealized film script by John Zorn from the 1980s. In The Man Phoning Mum, the artist projects new, color material on his black and white classic from the 1970s. XXX! is based on a 16-mm roll of film from the artist’s archive that has never been used before and which is refilmed from the projection screen with a digital camera. Thus the dying medium of film is transferred to a new format.

After Lumière – L'Arroseur arrosé, Malcolm Le Grice, uk 1974, 14 min

Return to the World of Dance, Dan Boord and Luis Valdovino and Marilyn Marloff, us 2011, 7 min

Hollywood Movie, Volker Schreiner, de 2012, 7 min

Well Then There Now, Lewis Klahr, us 2011, 14 min

The Man Phoning Mum, John Smith, uk 2011, 12 min

XXX!, Dietmar Brehm, at 2011, 8 min